Computer Game Technology as a Tool for Participatory Design

This paper reviews existing research into real-time visualization in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture and describes a University of Lincoln project exploring the application of this technology to participatory design. Staff at the School of Architecture have used'Virtools Development', a computer game prototyping package, to help residents in Hull, UK, to visualize and interact with a design proposal for a'home zone'in their neighbourhood, arrived at as part of a wider participatory process. This paper evaluates computer game technology in relation to more conventional participatory tools. It is difficult to justify using the technology to create simple'walk-through'simulations of design proposals, it argues. In such cases, the benefits real-time visualization offers over non-interactive video are largely outweighed by the technical difficulties involved in the production and use of real-time environments.