Robust Coastal Protection Dragør

Innovation of public involvement in architectural competitions, where classical and digital methods of engagement are used to enrich the data and involve more citizens in the debate on how Dragør should secure its coasts in the future.

#PublicInvolvement #DigitalDatascape # NetworkAnalysis #Collective Knowledge

Problem

Dragør's future coastal protection is designed through an architectural competition. The municipality wants to include citizens in the process to ensure a solution that is thoroughly rooted in the wishes and needs of the local population and which has their support.

Solution

In this innovative project, we work to bridge the gap between competing advisory teams and the citizens of the municipality. Citizens' attitudes and thoughts about the future coastal protection are digitally documented through mobilizing activities and made available through an online database. Citizens Ambassadors represent the inputs in a series of workshops where the advisory teams are present and the competition proposals are developed. A key criterion in the assessment process is the ability of teams to implement citizens' thoughts and ideas.

Result

The project is rethinking how public voices can be implemented in planning processes. The digital database makes it possible to sort the collected inputs by theme and what coastline they refer to, and it contains graphical representations of the inputs’ thematic content. This allows the ambassadors to represent the citizens' voices in the competition, which in turn makes it possible to ensure that the final solution is built on the needs of the citizens.