IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jftint/v17y2025i3p115-d1606301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CityBuildAR: Enhancing Community Engagement in Placemaking Through Mobile Augmented Reality

Author

Listed:
  • Daneesha Ranasinghe

    (Department of Town & Country Planning, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda 10400, Sri Lanka)

  • Nayomi Kankanamge

    (School of Law and Society, University of the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay, QLD 4502, Australia)

  • Chathura De Silva

    (Department of Town & Country Planning, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda 10400, Sri Lanka)

  • Nuwani Kangana

    (Department of Town & Country Planning, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda 10400, Sri Lanka)

  • Rifat Mahamood

    (Department of Town & Country Planning, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda 10400, Sri Lanka)

  • Tan Yigitcanlar

    (QUT Urban AI Hub, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia)

Abstract

Mostly, public places are planned and designed by professionals rather engaging the community in the design process. Even if the community engaged, the engagement process was limited to hand drawings, manual mappings, or public discussions, which limited the general public to visualize and well-communicate their aspirations with the professionals. Against this backdrop, this study intends to develop a mobile application called “CityBuildAR”, which uses Augmented Reality technology that allows the end user to visualize their public spaces in a way they want. CityBuildAR was developed by the authors using the Unity Real-Time Development Platform, and the app was developed for an Android Operating System. The app was used to assess community interests in designing open spaces by categorizing participants into three groups: those with limited, average, and professional knowledge of space design. The open cafeteria of the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka served as the testbed for this study. The study findings revealed that: (a) Mobile Augmented Reality is an effective way to engage people with limited knowledge in space design to express their design thinking, (b) Compared to professionals, the general public wanted to have more green elements in the public space; (c) Compared to the professionals, the general public who were not conversant with the designing skills found the app more useful to express their ideas. The study guides urban authorities in their placemaking efforts by introducing a novel approach to effectively capture community ideas for creating inclusive public spaces.

Suggested Citation

  • Daneesha Ranasinghe & Nayomi Kankanamge & Chathura De Silva & Nuwani Kangana & Rifat Mahamood & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2025. "CityBuildAR: Enhancing Community Engagement in Placemaking Through Mobile Augmented Reality," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-36, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:115-:d:1606301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/3/115/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/3/115/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandulika Abesinghe & Nayomi Kankanamge & Tan Yigitcanlar & Surabhi Pancholi, 2023. "Image of a City through Big Data Analytics: Colombo from the Lens of Geo-Coded Social Media Data," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Ansam Saleh Ali & Salahaddin Yasin Baper, 2023. "Assessment of Livability in Commercial Streets via Placemaking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-66, April.
    3. Zohar Fingerhut & Nurit Alfasi, 2023. "Operationalizing Community Placemaking: A Critical Relationship-Based Typology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Peter J. Ellery & Jane Ellery, 2019. "Strengthening Community Sense of Place through Placemaking," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 237-248.
    5. Amirzadeh, Melika & Sharifi, Ayyoob, 2024. "The evolutionary path of place making: From late twentieth century to post-pandemic cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    6. Peter J. Ellery & Jane Ellery, 2019. "Strengthening Community Sense of Place through Placemaking," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 237-248.
    7. Pancholi, Surabhi & Yigitcanlar, Tan & Guaralda, Mirko, 2019. "Place making for innovation and knowledge-intensive activities: The Australian experience," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 616-625.
    8. Maurício José Ribeiro Rotta & Denilson Sell & Roberto Carlos dos Santos Pacheco & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2019. "Digital Commons and Citizen Coproduction in Smart Cities: Assessment of Brazilian Municipal E-Government Platforms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-18, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frida Foss & Cerian Gibbes & Emily Skop, 2024. "Cultivating Integration via Placemaking: an ArcGIS StoryMap and Inventory of Refugee-Centered Farming Organizations in the USA," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 133-154, March.
    2. Michael W. Mehaffy & Tigran Haas & Peter Elmlund, 2019. "Public Space in the New Urban Agenda: Research into Implementation," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 134-137.
    3. Margarita Vološina & Evija Taurene & Pēteris Šķiņķis, 2023. "Towards Liveability in Historic Centres: Challenges and Enablers of Transformation in Two Latvian Towns," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 52-66.
    4. Amirzadeh, Melika & Sharifi, Ayyoob, 2024. "The evolutionary path of place making: From late twentieth century to post-pandemic cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Yue Wu & Yue Yang & Weishun Xu & Qiuxiao Chen, 2020. "The Influence of Innovation Resources in Higher Education Institutions on the Development of Sci-Tech Parks’ Enterprises in the Urban Innovative Districts at the Stage of Urbanization Transformation," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-36, October.
    6. Palmyra Repette & Jamile Sabatini-Marques & Tan Yigitcanlar & Denilson Sell & Eduardo Costa, 2021. "The Evolution of City-as-a-Platform: Smart Urban Development Governance with Collective Knowledge-Based Platform Urbanism," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, January.
    7. Tan Yigitcanlar & Kevin C. Desouza & Luke Butler & Farnoosh Roozkhosh, 2020. "Contributions and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Building Smarter Cities: Insights from a Systematic Review of the Literature," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-38, March.
    8. Debora Sotto & Arlindo Philippi & Tan Yigitcanlar & Md Kamruzzaman, 2019. "Aligning Urban Policy with Climate Action in the Global South: Are Brazilian Cities Considering Climate Emergency in Local Planning Practice?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-31, September.
    9. Julia Nerantzia Tzortzi & Ishita Saxena, 2024. "Bridging Matera’s Fragmented Identity: Unifying Disconnected Urban Spaces," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-37, November.
    10. Juan A. García-Esparza, 2022. "Urban Scene Protection and Unconventional Practices—Contemporary Landscapes in World Heritage Cities of Spain," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, February.
    11. Seng Boon Lim & Jalaluddin Abdul Malek & Md Farabi Yussoff Md Yussoff & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2021. "Understanding and Acceptance of Smart City Policies: Practitioners’ Perspectives on the Malaysian Smart City Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-31, August.
    12. Michael G. Hunter & Alessandro Soro & Ross A. Brown & Joel Harman & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2022. "Augmenting Community Engagement in City 4.0: Considerations for Digital Agency in Urban Public Space," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-25, August.
    13. Josef Vodák & Dominika Šulyová & Milan Kubina, 2021. "Advanced Technologies and Their Use in Smart City Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, May.
    14. Sha, Kritika & Taeihagh, Araz & De Jong, Martin, 2024. "Governing disruptive technologies for inclusive development in cities: A systematic literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    15. Marimuthu, Malliga & D'Souza, Clare & Shukla, Yupal, 2022. "Integrating community value into the adoption framework: A systematic review of conceptual research on participatory smart city applications," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    16. Meetiyagoda, Lakshika & Mahanama, P.K.S. & Ley, Astrid & Amarawickrama, Susantha, 2024. "Relationship between sense of place and co-creation process: A systematic literature review," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    17. Yue Wu & Xiangyi Li & Yue Yang & Weishun Xu, 2022. "Correlation between Urban Commercial Nodes and the Development of Sci-Tech Enterprises in Hangzhou West High-Tech Corridor, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-28, November.
    18. Youwei Tan & Qinglan Qian & Xiaolan Chen, 2023. "Empirical Evaluation of the Impact of Informal Communication Space Quality on Innovation in Innovation Districts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, March.
    19. Adu-McVie, Rosemary & Yigitcanlar, Tan & Erol, Isil & Xia, Bo, 2021. "Classifying innovation districts: Delphi validation of a multidimensional framework," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    20. Aldona Podgórniak-Krzykacz & Justyna Przywojska & Justyna Wiktorowicz, 2020. "Smart and Age-Friendly Communities in Poland. An Analysis of Institutional and Individual Conditions for a New Concept of Smart Development of Ageing Communities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-23, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:115-:d:1606301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.