IC3: Digital Tools for Inclusive Public Consultation

Abstract

The presentation demonstrates the benefits of collaborative working to develop innovation in the built environment domain. This collaboration was facilitated through the International Centre for Connected Construction (IC3) which provides connections between experts from the industry and academia, alongside support with bidding activities.
This case study describes the integration of digital and methodological innovations from current building practice, into the domain of public planning consultations. In public planning consultations, engaging diverse people, who are generally non-experts, in the consultation is a major issue. To address this issue, we developed an online BIM platform in which visual geometric data, alongside some parametric data could bring additional value in communicating design proposals to non-experts. Thus, it bridges the gap in understanding some of the technocratic language used, and mediation currently required to communicate design proposals. The benefit of all this has led to a step change in the way the industry partner has developed their digital planning consultation platform to address gaps in current planning consultation practice. It also allows them to demonstrate true innovation in the sector by embedding digital practice used in other parts of the sector into the planning domain.
The benefit of the collaboration was to bring computer science expertise as applied to the built environment domain from the academic team to the industry practical knowledge of planning consultation methods. The case study demonstrates how IC3 used a collaborative approach bringing together architectural design, planning and BIM disciplines to present a real-world design project for planning consultation.