The Prospects for Online Planning. Andrew Hudson-Smith

357 Pages·2005·15.32 MB·English

Digitally Distributed Urban Environments:
The Prospects for Online Planning.

Andrew Hudson-Smith

The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning
University College London
University of London

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
ABSTRACT

Planning is about communication, the communication of space and
place in relation to built form. The advent of digital networks provides the
opportunity to radically change the concept of communication within not
only the urban planning system but also wider fields related to the
development of the built environment. How we communicate is
increasingly becoming digital and the rise of the Internet in particular
during the last decade has freed planning from the constraints of working
hours and the reliance of specific locations and times to portray
information. Information can now be visualised, communicated and
manipulated at any location, any place, at any time, as long as we have
the political, cultural, and economic means that gives us access to the
relevant technologies. These technologies are on the edge of a new
revolution in our ability to design, communicate and plan at a distance.
The revolution on the horizon is one of inhabited virtual place; a place
where the environment is represented digitally in three dimensions and
communication is achieved through avatars, defined as an individual’s
visual embodiment in the virtual environment. Avatars in these emerging
environments are the stakeholders, the occupants and the commuters of
the digital realm. As such they are also the citizens that will design, occupy
and manipulate built form in the development of digital planning and
they will have a say in the future planning process. These developments
contribute towards a digital, ‘Online’ planning system, which is explored in
a series of working examples throughout this thesis.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND LINKS TO
RELATED WORK

Note on examples and online demonstrations -

The nature of this thesis is digital, to fully understand the examples it is
preferable to view them side-by-side with this document in a web browser.
As such a companion web page has been set-up containing links to all
the examples covered in this thesis. The thesis is also available, in full
colour, online in Adobe Acrobat format. The website may be viewed by
pointing your Internet browser (version 5 or above compatible browsers
recommended) at:

http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/digtialplanning/

The site also contains information on the latest research that has been
placed online post publication.

If readers wish to go direct to any examples they may be found at the
following locations:

30 Days in ActiveWorlds – http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/30days/
Hackney Building Exploratory Interactive -
http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/hackney/
London Bridges Interactive Visualisation -
http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/londonbridges/
Online Planning – http://www.onlineplanning.org
Online Planning Journal – http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/planning/
Shared Architecture – http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/public/meta.htm
The GlassHouse – http://www.theglasshoue.org.uk
Virtual London – http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/virtuallondon/
Wired Whitehall – http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/vuis/
Woodberry Down Regeneration –
http://www.hackney.gov.uk/woodberry/

The example of Dounreay Nuclear Power Station is not available online
due to security issues.
Note on use of the term ‘he’ -

In this thesis, when we refer to the avatars or users of cyberspace, we use
the term ‘he’ not she or he/she. We will assume the reader accepts this
terminology.

Note on use of the term ‘web’ -

For grammatical clarity we refer to the World Wide Web in its shortened form of
‘web
CONTENTS

Abstract i
Explanatory Notes and Links to Related Work ii
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
1.1 Overview..................................................................................
1.2 Detailed Outline of the Thesis...............................................
1.1.1 Part 1: Contexts.......................................................................
1.2.2 Part 2: Tools for Digital Space...............................................
1.2.3: Part 3 Development and Application................................

I Contexts

2 Digital Planning

2.1 The Main Frame......................................................................
2.2 The Personal Computer.........................................................
2.3 Geographical Information Systems.....................................
2.4 New Information and Communication Technologies.....
2.5 e-Government........................................................................
2.6 Emerging waves.....................................................................

3 Participation, Communication and Networked
Visualisation in Planning

3.1 A Media Shift in Planning Communication........................
3.2 Communication to the Public..............................................
3.2.1 Non-Digital...............................................................................
3.2.2 Digital........................................................................................
3.2.3 Digital Networked...................................................................

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II Tools for Digital Space

4 Digital Space – Cyberplace
4.1 Digital Space...........................................................................
4.2 Virtual Reality...........................................................................
4.3 Cyberspace/Cyberplace.....................................................
4.4 Digital Embodiment...............................................................
4.5 Text Space...............................................................................
4.6 Game Space..........................................................................
4.6.1 The God ‘Simulation’.............................................................
4.6.2 Three Dimensional ‘Shoot em Ups’......................................
4.6.3 Online Gaming.......................................................................
4.7 Digital Geography.................................................................
4.7.1 Dimensions of ActiveWorlds..................................................
4.7.2 Communication Space of ActiveWorlds...........................
4.7.3 The Visual Space of ActiveWorlds.......................................
4.8 Navigation of Space.............................................................
4.9 Utopianism...............................................................................
4.10 Cyberplace.............................................................................

5 Tool and requirements: Modelling and Distributing Virtual
Environments

5.1 Components of Networked Three-Dimensional
Graphics................................................................................................
5.2 Tools for Modelling Virtual Environments............................
5.3 Distributing Virtual Environments..........................................

III Examples of Digital Planning

6 Digital Planning and Visualisation: Examples and
Applications

6.1 Wired Whitehall Urban Interface System............................
6.1.1 Data capture and Information Communication.............
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6.1.2 Augmenting Reality – Communicating Design
Features.................................................................................................
6.1.3 Multi-User Object Visualisation.............................................
6.1.4 Feedback................................................................................
6.2 Digital Visualisation – The Battersea Bridge Road
Public Inquiry.........................................................................................
6.3 The Collaborative Design Studio.........................................
6.4 Sharing Architecture..............................................................
6.5 Digital Dounreay Nuclear Power Plant...............................
6.6 Hackney Building Exploratory...............................................
6.7 London Bridges Interactive...................................................
6.8 Technology Transfer...............................................................

7 The Digital Magnet: Virtual Cities, Community and Design
in Virtual Space

7.1 Wired City................................................................................
7.2 Virtual City................................................................................
7.2.1 HTML Virtual City.....................................................................
7.2.2 The Two-Dimensional Virtual City.........................................
7.2.3 True Virtual Cities: The Digital Magnet................................
7.3 Digital Hamlet: 30 Days in ActiveWorlds.............................
7.3.1 First Steps..................................................................................
7.3.2 Virtual Terrorism ......................................................................
7.3.3 Digital Coffee – Community in 30 Days..............................
7.3.4 Spatial Development.............................................................
7.3.5 30 Days II and Beyond...........................................................
7.4 Towards a True Virtual City....................................................

8 Woodberry Down Virtual Regeneration
8.1 Background to Woodberry Down.......................................
8.2 Website Development..........................................................
8.3 Evaluation of the Woodberry Down Website...................

9 A Prospect for Digital Planning: Virtual London

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9.1 Three-Dimensional Models of London................................
9.2 The Case for Virtual London and Digital Planning............
9.3 Role players in Virtual London..............................................
9.4 Participants in Virtual London..............................................
9.4.1 Fully Professional Usage.........................................................
9.4.2 Concerned Citizen Usage/Public Participation................
9.4.3 Virtual Tourist............................................................................
9.4.4 Educational Usage.................................................................
9.5 Technical Development.......................................................
9.5.1 Digital Map and Height Data..............................................
9.5.2 Software and Hardware........................................................
9.5.3 Interfaces.................................................................................

10 Conclusions
10.1 General Conclusions............................................................
10.2 Future Developments...........................................................
10.3 And Finally..............................................................................

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LIST OF FIGURES

2.1 Computing, Software, Information and Technical
Knowledge in Planning.............................................................. 12
2.2 Factors in the Successful Implementation of Computing
in Planning.................................................................................... 17
2.3 Planning Support Systems and Emerging Public Planning
Support Systems...........................................................................
2.4 Johnson’s Four Square Map of GroupWare Options............
2.5 Webtv or Internet Browser: A comparison..............................
3.1 Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation............................................
3.2 Artists Impression of Development in Bracknell, Berkshire....
3.3 Residents Engaged in ‘Planning for Real’...............................
3.4 The Hackney Building Exploratory ‘Hackney Model’............
3.5 Custom Designed Booth to Display the Four Design
Options..........................................................................................
3.6 Option 3 Inserted into a Block Model of the Local Area.....
3.7 Architectural Sketches of Design Options..............................
3.8 School Children Discussing the Design Options.....................
3.9 Open Plan Layout Designed as part of the Consultation
Exercise with Children.................................................................
3.10 Digital model of Hetherlow Towers/Walton Park
Gardens, Liverpool......................................................................
3.11 Cambridge Future’s Before and After Visualisation..............
3.12 Downtown Los Angeles..............................................................
3.13 The Devon County Structure Plan 2011 Online......................
3.14 North Wiltshire Planning Service................................................
3.15 Wandsworth Planning Application Notices............................
3.16 Virtual Slaithwaite Interface......................................................
3.17 Oi4B Map Interface Illustrating Domestic Burglaries
According to Enumeration district...........................................
3.18 Hackney Map..............................................................................
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4.1 Components of Perceived Reality in Real and Digital
Space............................................................................................
4.2 Virtual Geography as Place and Space in Nodes and
Nets................................................................................................
4.3 Cyberplace in Cyberspace, Asynchronous and
Synchronous Virtual Environments............................................
4.4 Avatars in Digital Space, Part of 30 Days in ActiveWorlds...
4.5 Habitat, the First Graphical SVE................................................
4.6 Minimal Graphics Representing a Ping-Pong Game, in
1972, Pong....................................................................................
4.7 SimCity 3000 Gaming Environment..........................................
4.8 Houses of Parliament, London, Modelling in the SCURK
for SimCity 2000...........................................................................
4.9 Transport Tycoon, Developed by Micropose, Gaming
Environment.................................................................................
4.10 Doom from ID Software..............................................................
4.11 Networked Quake Arena, Developed by ID Software........
4.12 ActiveWorlds Browser, Avatars in AlphaWorld.......................
4.13 Lara’s NW Buildings Supply Yard, AlphaWorld.......................
4.14 Construction in ActiveWorlds....................................................
4.15 Central AlphaWorld Over time and AlphaWorld Density
Map...............................................................................................
4.16 ActiveWorlds Communication Space.....................................
4.17 Visual space in ActiveWorlds and Hopi, Space and Time:
Subjective and Objective Realms...........................................
4.18 Sherwood, AlphaWorld..............................................................
4.19 PippinVille in AlphaWorld...........................................................
4.20 LittleBull’s Forest in AlphaWorld.................................................
5.1 Interpretation of Bruztman’s (1997) Six Components of
Graphics Internetworking with the Addition of File Size.......
5.2 Bottlenecks in Access Speed....................................................
5.3 Technical Complexity and Connectivity in Relation to
Participation and Interaction, Linked to Specific
Research Examples.....................................................................
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