Digital participation and design innovations as tools for achieving sustainable urban regeneration at the neighborhood scale - The case of Mashhad from Iran and Melbourne from Australia

Presently, urbanization is one of the leading global development issues. It has severe implications and puts real pressure on socio-economic and ecological sustainability, and the well-being of a major proportion of the ZRUOGʼV population. One important focus in recent decades concerns sustainable development and urban regeneration [1]. However, there is much controversy concerning the practical implications of sustainable development, and indeed the term is somewhat ambiguous. This ambiguity of the term sustainable also applies to urban regeneration projects and can be considered as an inability in establishing communication between different stakeholders, or actants. Considering the fact that inequalities and deprivations are increasingly prevalent even in the most sustainable cities or regions, I have chosen two case studies with consideration of their similarities and differences for this research. The first area is Melbourne, Australia, which is widely regarded as a developed country, the second is Mashhad, Iran, currently understood as a developing country according to a United Nations report (2018) [2]. Current literature indicates that participation is considered critical to the design of sustainable and healthy urban forms. However, in this research, ʽGLJLWDO SDUWLFLSDWLRQʼ is proposed as an approach to incremental communicative urban planning. Semi-structured Skype interviews and online web-based surveys at neighborhood scale were also used for the two case studies. There are two stages of participation and I apply design innovations such as describing scenarios and creating 3D modelling, as tools for envisioning the urban regeneration projects and facilitate communication with participants. Following the two participation stages, results will inform the redesign of neighbourhoods and propose recommendations for future urban regeneration projects for both Mashhad and Melbourne. The key contribution of this study is to demonstrate how a communicative and strategic approach to urban development through small-scale incremental change results in more sustainable urban regeneration.

Keywords:

urban development , sustainable urban regeneration , digital participation , design innovation , incrementalism , communicative urban planning