Criteria for Cooperative Urban Design through Digital System of Design Tools

Urban design is a public collaborative activity, which deals with our building environment. We all want to make urban areas pleasant and functional. Both lay public and professionals have to be included in the design process. They have different knowledge backgrounds and expertise, but they need to communicate and collaborate with each other, using a wide variety of digital tools available. However, it can be argued, that existing interfaces cannot meet the needs of this communication process: one of the main problems is that they are not integrated into a recognizable system of tools for public participation in urban design. At different stages of public participation in urban design special needs for specific digital tools can be identified (e.g. digital tools for decision making process, digital tool for informing lay public etc.). These stages and their related suitable digital tools will be defined in the following article as starting points for the development of the digital system of tools mentioned above. 3D city models represent a special digital tool for communication and collaboration between lay public and professionals through the whole process of participation. They are really important for visualization and simulation in cooperative design. The criteria for cooperative design using the 3D city models will be defined in this article: as essential elements of the digital system of urban design collaboration and communication tools.