SuperBarrio is a videogame for public space co-design. Superbarrio uses gamification strategies, attracting a larger audience, increasing engagement and developing virtuous relationships between citizens and neighborhoods.
It has an intuitive interface where users can visualise the 3D of the area to be codesigned, select some design possibilities (e.g. planting trees, integrating bike stations), visualise them in the 3D and visualise indicators related to the impact of their selections.
Cross-border/international
Spain
France
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Italy
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Bulgaria
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Portugal
Barcelona - Nantes – Genova – Favara – Sofia - Porto
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
Horizon2020 / Horizon Europe
SuperBarrio has been implemented in Erasmus and Horizon2020 projects.
No
Yes
2019-11-30
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): INSTITUT D'ARQUITECTURA AVANCADA DE CATALUNYA - Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Gaia Last name of representative: Agostini Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: EU PROJECT EXPERT Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: C. de Pujades 102 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08005 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 933 20 95 20 E-mail:gaia.agostini@iaac.net Website:http://iaac.net/
SuperBarrio addresses the challenges of public space appropriation, social cohesion, citizen participation, aiming to co-create a more self-sufficient, circular, and resilient city model.
Superbarrio is a co-design tool and supports participatory design processes for public spaces. It engages a diverse audience, collects and interprets quantitative and qualitative data, co-designs informed solutions and supports continuous implementation and monitoring.
Users can play from everywhere, visualizing the project area in 3d and playing by choosing, dragging and dropping elements from a catalog of 3D solutions (e.g threes, benches, bike stations), at desired points in the public space.
Based on the chosen items, the App shows the impact of the preferred options and visualizes a list of indicators referring to green economy, ecology, and social cohesion, showing the possibilities of living in a more sustainable city.
The gaming session data are stored and available for decision-makers to create citizens' will-informed plans, and allows the creation of geolocated maps of desires. Architects, urban planners, and public entities are later able to use and analyse these maps to make long-term decisions aligned with the needs and wills of different profiles of users.
Working on the public space realm and developing a participatory model, SuperBarrio showcases and evaluates emergent processes and strategies which can contribute to innovative public space design, stimulating citizen participation to co-create self-sufficient, circular, and resilient cities and neighborhoods, in light of the pandemic and environmental crisis.
Superbarrio has been implemented in Barcelona (2017) to co-design the Superilla pilot project, in Favara (2018) to co-design with kids the Fam Cultural Park, in Genoa (2018) to co-design the Casa Gavoglio area (part of the H2020 project UNalab), and in Nantes, Porto and Sofia (2019) to co-design the healthy corridors part of H2020 Urbinat project.
Urban Regeneration
Gamification
Inclusion
Public Space
Sustainability
Superbarrio is in line with the EU demand to ensure the broadest public participation in the decision-making process and with the Barcelona Municipality's(ABM) largest participatory initiative, approved in Oct. 2017, the new Citizen Participation Regulation, which has given way to pioneering actions to ensure that all interested stakeholders have a say in public decisions.
Co-design is recognized as fundamental to building an inclusive, supportive, and cohesive public space. In this direction, the project aims to contribute to new models in which participation is strengthened in public decisions and sustainable living and consumption habits are promoted.
Superbarrio uses a gamification approach to facilitate public space co-design that follows principles of sustainability, self-sufficiency, and circularity while raising awareness of our lifestyles’ impact on the environment, the economy, and the community, and promoting resilient and sustainable cities related to interaction and consumption.
Following the existing actions of the AMB on the creation of new pedestrian-friendly spaces, either temporarily or permanently, in 2017, the areas for Superbarrio Barcelona were selected together with the AMB. After this successful implementation, the tool has been replicated in other cities with specific objectives, responding to local needs. For example, in Favara it has been developed to create a kids’ friendly environment, and in Sofia, Porto, and Nantes to develop a healthy corridor equipped with nature-based solutions. In each version, the catalogue solutions (e.g., kid's games or different nature solutions) and the indicators are adapted.
Therefore, Superbarrio is a highly flexible App to include participation in the regeneration process, it promotes informed decision-making and at the same time, informs architects and decision-makers about the needs and desires of the community in a selected public space, thanks to the maps of desires created by the App.
The project, Superbarrio, aims to raise awareness about the impact of a more productive, circular, and resilient public space model on health and quality of life.
The tool deepens participation and empowers citizens to shape their cities in a way that decision-makers prioritize the well-being, satisfaction, and inspiration of the communities.
The tool increases the awareness of the place, identity, and sense of belonging engaging citizens through gamification strategies. It supports the contemporary culture related to sustainable lifestyles, promoting pedestrian areas and slow mobility, and circularity for food consumption and production.
The process of Superbarrio leans on people's creativity, and it contributes to shaping a new sense of identity in the regeneration process, embracing local culture and diversity, and re-shaping shape beautiful public areas, that go beyond functionality.
The process of Superbarrio involves gathering qualitative data from citizens about their wishes and needs, which helps inform long-term public space configuration and design decisions. Within Urbinat H2020 Superbarrio implementation, the experts from the project conducted questionnaires to assess the citizens' satisfaction, and resulted that they found the Superbarrio participatory process more engaging with respect to a traditional one.
As stated by UNESCO in GLOBAL REPORT on CULTURE for SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT (2016), “The livability of a city depends on its capacity to best meet the citizens’ basic needs supported by physical and social infrastructure, but it can also be gauged in terms of the degree of happiness urban life can bring to its inhabitants.”
Superbarrio gives the community the voice to shape the area with their desires and inspirations based on their culture and creativity.
The project aims to increase citizen participation and plurality in decision-making in public space by developing an accessible tool that broadens the participation audience, increases social cohesion and encourages the appropriation of public space.
To meet this objective, the interface design of Superbarrio was created with a high level of accessibility that allows for the collection of profile data while respecting privacy. The variety of sociodemographic profiles was measured through criteria such as age, gender, and nationality, both in the participation of the game and in the participation of the workshops. When users open Superbarrio they are asked to fill in a questionnaire with their data. This has a double intention: on one side to verify that the participatory process has been inclusive, checking that diverse profiles took part in it, on the other side it is possible to filter the results and understand if specific profiles have particular needs or interests (for example if women do not choose certain elements to avoid to create isolated, shaded and less secure areas).
Superbarrio is available in several languages to increase accessibility to boost practicality, simplicity, and speed in the process of selecting elements from citizens. Overall, the project met its objectives by creating an accessible tool that broadens the participation audience, increases social cohesion, and encourages the appropriation of public space while incorporating key agents in the territory and striving for plurality in the participatory processes.
During the various implementations, the participants showed considerable interest in the platform and a high level of autonomy in playing the game. Moreover, the participants manifested a high level of interaction, showing their different proposals for the co-design solutions to their peers on the tablets, fostering debate and confrontation on the diverse possible configurations that public space could assume.
All game sessions were followed by a feedback session, in which the majority of people rated the experience positively. They were asked to highlight which aspects of the experience had impressed them, positively or negatively. A significant number of participants shared a feeling of surprise and interest in being able to navigate their neighborhood in 3D, as it allowed them to understand relationships between different spaces, as well as to receive information about public spaces, city infrastructures, and possible sustainable solutions to be implemented.
All the players expressed interest in the possibility of introducing proposed sustainable solutions related to local productivity (energy, food), (circularity (recycling, upcycling), and green resilience (nature, green, filtration of microparticles, CO2, etc) and explained that they were not aware of their potential to foster livability and sustainability of cities.
Educational and informative sessions were planned together with playing sessions to show examples of urban elements and their impact on the air quality, health, and life of the neighborhood, increasing awareness of participants on the impact of our life and consumption habits on the environment.
The game proved to be successful in generating awareness and reflection about the complexity of public spaces. The indicators related to the impact of each solution challenged the participants to keep a balance between different indicators and drove them to develop accurate and realistic proposals for healthy and livable public spaces.
Superbarrio is a project that addresses the challenges of public space appropriation, social cohesion, and citizen participation, and promotes a more productive and sustainable way of life for the community. Superbarrio, in all its implementation, used a highly participatory, multidisciplinary, and multi-stakeholder approach, involving architects, urban planners, programmers, makers, media artists, and experts in social science, social participation, and citizen engagement.
Involving a wide range of experts together with local residents, community organizations, and government officials, ensured on one side that the project was responsive to the needs and priorities of the community and that it had buy-in from all relevant parties, and on the other side, ensured that the technical and aesthetical point of view was feasible to be implemented in the design of the area.
The added value of stakeholder engagement in Superbarrio is that outcomes of the project are more sustainable and equitable, as a result of the involvement of various levels of stakeholders, from normal citizens to neighborhood associations, and to existing bodies focused on citizen participation.
The involved participants get empowered and understood the objectives of the municipalities and the structure of existing institutions for participatory processes.
In the same way, at the decision-making level, the analysis of the final proposals shows the most used modules highlighting high-interest areas, namely squares and central streets, where usually players located most modules. Through the app, it is possible to determine locations of major interest according to the demographic data of the players, understanding the relational logic in the spectrum of players’ preferences and desires. The game does not offer a final design solution, but a combination of possibilities of proposals open to future development.
The project was developed through the collaborative efforts of experts working at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). IAAC is a leading international institute in advanced architecture, urbanism, and the design of resilient and productive cities, hosting a Fab-Lab space for co-creation and co-working that supports artisans, creatives, and designers in developing their ideas.
In each different location, Superbarrio was carried out with the collaboration of the neighborhood associations of the area, with mentors from citizen science, and collaboration with existing bodies focused on citizen participation. These organizations were involved throughout the projects, from its conception to development, implementation, and monitoring of results.
Additionally, being implemented in the framework of H2020 or Erasmus projects, IAAC has included in the development of the tailored Superbarrio, all the associated partners, with local knowledge and specific expertise, as well as rooted local association for participation and local development.
From architects and urban planners to programmers, makers, media artists, and experts in social science, social participation, and citizens, the project achieved maximum public-private-people collaboration, creating a novel methodology that can be adapted and replicated in various contexts.
Superbarrio is an app that can be customized for different contexts and neighborhoods. The architecture of the participation tool itself is developed according to the needs identified by the local community.
Superbarrio aims at strengthening the sense of appropriation of the space (placemaking) and at making proximal social relations in the neighborhood more inclusive and organic.
Citizens and residents of neighborhoods of different ages, genders, and nationalities have the opportunity to participate in the co-design process, giving voice to their needs and desires. Users can download the App on phones, computers, or tablets and could play individually or in groups, together with family members, friends, and/or other neighbors.
The possibility of playing from home gives the opportunity for the inclusion and participation of people with reduced mobility, weak health, or certain limitations.
To meet the objective of regaining the sense of belonging in the space we live in, the principles that guided the process of Superbarrio for the Participation in the co-design of the public space were: strengthening the connection with the space we inhabit, increasing the sense of appropriation and responsibility for the space people live in.
From our questionnaires, we have found out that the inclusive participation of the community created new valuable relationships between people, the neighborhood, the neighborhood associations, and the municipalities, and it promoted community-building and positive inter-generational exchanges through its raising awareness process on sustainable living, which are important dimensions of restoring a feeling of belonging.
Superbarrio is a digital tool based on gamification and serious game strategies and proposes solutions to develop a spatial participatory design for decision-makers that engage with the collective intelligence of communities.
Compared to traditional participatory processes, Superbarrio, uses gamification strategies to attract and involve a different and broader group of stakeholders and at the same time, allow people who were not present in in-person specific events to present their opinion and take part in the decision process. Sharing the results of data analytics, Superbarrio promotes debates among citizens, who can co-interpret the results together with decision-makers.
Compared to the serious game approach, where users get informed on a particular matter, understanding issues and solutions at a hypothetical level, Superbarrio provides concrete examples and concrete strategies to tackle issues at a local level, such as food scarcity, energy saving, sustainable mobility, social cohesion and so on.
Superbarrio is a multiplayer game that enables a collective process of co-design, thanks to the data visualization engine. In fact, each design proposal is collected in real-time on a cloud server, creating a geolocalized database concerning players’ desires, needs, and solutions. With this system, Superbarrio can collect qualitative data in the form of free spatial design solutions and locations of major interests can be interpreted.
The gaming engine can additionally collect quantitative data regarding the number of modules selected or the preferred typology of modules, and which data are combined with players’ demographic profiles (age, gender, nationality).
Superbarrio does not provide a final design, but a strategy for an evolutionary participatory process, promoting qualitative interaction and data collection with citizens and communities.
Superbarrio was developed in six phases:
1. Define area/neighborhood of implementation for co-creation and participation: In this phase, IAAC contacts existing participation entities, partners, various neighborhood associations, and the interested city council to define to identify a pilot project area for the development of the adapted version of Superbarrio App.
2. Co-analysis of the implementation area and Co-design of the urban elements: With the technical advice of the municipality or official entities, workshops are held with residents and municipal representatives to analyze the selected area and define the urban elements that can be included in the game.
3. Technical development and programming of the digital tool: Under a Creative Commons license, the team designs and programs the digital game, including the 3D design of the area and a library of urban elements.
4. Implementation in the chosen area: In collaboration with the neighborhood associations and official representatives of the district, workshops are held with the objective of promoting dialogue between users with various opinions, desires, and needs. Also, a web page is created to provide further information on the App.
5. Analysis of results: The team extracts data from the games, including user profile information, like age, and gender, and creates geolocated maps of the desires of participants.
6. Co-Evaluation of results: In this phase, results are analysed. An online forum is usually created to communicate the results and gather further feedback. Final maps, representing the consensus for the distribution/co-design are finally drawn.
The ultimate goal of Superbarrio is not to implement the co-designed public space plan, but to evaluate the importance of the participatory process in awareness raising on sustainable lifestyles.
However, results are usually disseminated, trying to attract companies and investors for the implementation of the co-created plan.
Superbarrio BCN App was the first app created as a customizable tool for different contexts and neighborhoods, that can be applied in different areas and local contexts,
Its architecture was developed in a participatory manner according to the needs identified by the local community.
The final results developed within Superbarrio BCN project were meant to be used in several ways, including:
(i) A customizable digital tool for participatory urban design: A personalization package for the digital tool that can be replicated in different areas and in different cities with different urban elements, tailored to local needs and contexts.
(ii) An open-source participatory design tool/interface: An open-source interface package that allows other entities, institutions, groups or individuals to access, use, personalize, or merge and complement with other projects. The open-source interface can be used and adapted to different scales (city, public space, building, housing) and with different urban elements (from urban infrastructure to urban or housing furniture).
The Superbarrio App has already been successfully customized for other cities, highlighting the importance of creating a well-organized, customizable package for future replicability.
After the project Superbarrio BCN, the App was used and transferred in other cities, with different context, such as Genoa and Favara, as describe in the website: https://superbarrio.iaac.net/.
It has also been used in other EU Project, in particular in the Horizon 2020 project URBINAT, still ongoing, in which the tool has been used to co-design healthy corridors with Nature-Based solutions in selected cities, as describe in the website: https://urbinat.eu/nbs/super-barrio-2/.
Superbarrio aims to contribute to the construction of a new normality in which citizens are more involved in the design of public spaces and promote sustainable living and consumption habits.
The tool aims to increase awareness about the impact of our lifestyles on the environment, health, and economy of our communities, and to promote ethical living and consumption habits.
The project contributes to promoting ethical living and consumption habits in the neighborhood through two actions:
( i) While users are playing with Superbarrio, the App allows them to explore a library of urban elements of local productivity, circularity, and urban resilience. By choosing each one of these elements (which is co-created with the same community of neighbors) the users can see some attributed characteristics (e.g. the ability of certain solutions to produce energy or food or social interaction, recycle or filter micro particles and CO2).
(ii) While users are placing the urban elements of their needs and desires in the public space, the game provides information on the impact of all these elements in the neighborhood, including the reduction of pollution, the increase in health, energy savings, or the corresponding amount of food and resources produced.
Through the use of the game, it is possible to raise awareness among citizens on how individual and collective models of sustainable consumption can impact and change the quality of their neighborhood and their community.
Working on existing participatory and urban sustainability actions, Superbarrio studied new ways in the use of video game technologies to increase awareness of the impact of sustainable actions (use of green plant waste to create compost, plastic recycling in Fab Labs to create everyday objects), promoting new models of life and ethical consumption among citizens.
