Process of making the hearth of the neighbourhood: from analogue to digital public space design

Abstract

We are living in a period where communities and individuals have the chance to operate more directly in the city, and present their own opinions and proposals on how the city can be developed and designed in accordance with their needs and expectations. This period is also characterised by change in the general approach to the city as self-organised system that is free from the division of bottom and top urban players. This has led to the creation of a new, open and collaborative city-making method called “urban gaming”. On the one hand, the game is a laboratory for “understanding and strategizing” and on the other it is assumed as a ‘generative’ method. This tool could also be seen as an interface for the creation of knowledge and negotiation in the abstract decision-making process and material construction of the city. The game itself can be designed depending on the specific situation and scale to achieve more sustainable plans and proposals. Due to its complexity and the specificity of urban problems, urban game may use analogue as well as digital techniques. To illustrate this contemporary tool, the present paper will use the experience of the urban gaming process that was held in Belgrade. The game was created and implemented to develop a local public space, based on the neighbourhood initiative addressed to the representatives of the local government of the City of Belgrade. In this case study, seen as an urban experiment, special attention is placed on the different phases of the process, the results that have been achieved, as well as the use of analogue and digital tools during the application of the method.