Augmented Urbans - 5 cities around the Baltic Sea to apply XR for urban planning

Augmented Urbans is co-developing integrated urban planning practices through Extended Reality (XR = VR/AR/MR) technologies. Long-term visions with today’s actions!

Cities around the world have identified the need for better integrated participatory urban management to bridge their long-term visions and objectives into practical urban development actions. AU provides a cross-border collaboration platform to Central Baltic cities willing to address integrated urban planning challenges.

Augmented Urbans aims at strengthening the integration of three aspects of urban planning: timeframe, participation and technology. It improves stakeholder participation and links  long-term visions with short-term actions to provide high level of expertise to Central Baltic cities. For this reason, new, augmented, virtual and mixed reality technologies are explored and utilised as tools to support urban planning processes in guiding discussions, and providing immersive scenarios.

A shared Matrix of Indicators for urban resilience is co-developed and new technologies aid in creating a space for interaction between city officials and local actors. Local urban planning initiatives, Local Actions, are run in each city with two iterations. These actions are supported by a multidisciplinary Advisory Board. The context, objectives and findings planned for each round are co-defined and shared during interregional Planners’ Forum events. Cities have an opportunity to adopt methods learned from their peers’ planning and implementation experiences. In the framework of the project five integrated urban management plans are developed to aid Central Baltic cities to become more resilient and sustainable. Gained insights are shared via existing networks.

10 Partners, 5 Local Actions, 4 Countries, one Baltic Sea!