Rijeka PILOT: Hacking of Škurinje Quarter

The central part of the Rijeka pilot is the establishment of the Citizen Collaboration Platform (CCP), an on-line tool which will allow open communication and interaction with citizens, primarily on gathering the ideas and proposals for use of City-owned infrastructure objects, real-estates and other public spaces. Three major target groups were identified: (1) elderly people, (2) young people, and (3) already engaged citizens.

‘Hacking of the Quarter’ is an initiative to stimulate greater citizen participation in the process of collecting and realizing ideas that are necessary for a more productive living in the area of the city's suburbs of Rijeka. The Citizen Collaboration Platform (CCP) by URBAN INNO is a great tool for structuring the idea of active citizens, and the very concept is presented in detail by Mr. Damir Medved from Ericsson NT.

First, URBAN INNO methodology and set of tools for encouraging citizen participation developed in the project, and publicly available at: https://www.user-participation.eu/ was presented and demonstrated. That was followed by a live demonstration of the CCP final version: http://urbaninno.epizy.com/index.php

Mr. Ivan Pletenac from Molecula creative agency, demonstrated a platform for promoting urban mobility, Bike Rijeka, and suggested possible improvements that would involve greater citizen participation in the context of collecting and locating POIs (Points of Interest) and other interesting things that could significantly increase the usability of the application.

Advanced methods of modeling and visualization of the urban planning process were presented by Mr. Marin Račić from the MR2 Architectural Bureau that realized several projects in Rijeka and internationally. Visualization facilitates the presentation of potential solutions (when it comes to larger area interventions) to residents so that they can take part in the processes and make a qualified decision.

Mr. Marko Žmak from StudioArtLan demonstrated advanced Augmented Reality (AR) technology that enables virtual objects to be positioned in the real space (for example, changing or arranging children's playgrounds, etc.), making it clearer whether some ideas work or not in real space.

Finally, it was concluded in a vivid discussion that it would certainly be necessary to work on the integration of the proposed solutions into a single platform - each of which could contribute to the overall synergy of solutions to encourage citizen participation.