Urban design and participation
Community consultations and workshops
Agreement builds.
- Spacesquares, streets, parks, courtyards
- Forcities, municipalities, developers, cooperatives
- Howattentively, with people, helped by technology
Why?
Residents know their neighbourhood better than anyone. They know where it gets slippery in winter, where children cross the street and where there is no shade. Without that knowledge we design blind.
A square you helped design becomes your square. Neighbours look after the greenery they planned themselves, and young people take care of the benches they drew.
Voting once every few years is not enough. Around a shared table people get to know each other, learn to listen and take responsibility for the place they live in.
How we work
- 1UnderstandingWe start by listening. We walk the area with residents and ask how they live, what they love and what worries them. Empathy stays with us until the end.
- 2Looking for solutions togetherWe draw together on maps and plans. Digital tools and AI help us show an idea so that everyone can see and judge it, without knowing the language of designers.
- 3Changing perspectiveWe look at the same place through the eyes of a child, an older woman, a cyclist and a shopkeeper. Artificial intelligence sorts the voices, but it is collective intelligence, people’s experience, that suggests the answers.
- 4A democratic decisionWe choose the direction together, for example by voting. As architects we act more as moderators than authors: we gather knowledge and turn it into a design.
Context
To understand how we can talk to each other, we need to understand who we are.
Denmark and the Netherlands lead the way here: residents design streets and courtyards together with city officials. But can that simply be copied to Poland? According to Geert Hofstede’s research, Poles feel the distance to power much more strongly than Danes (68 versus 18) and dislike uncertainty far more (93 versus 23). We need a process tailored to us, one that takes our culture, our history and the way we talk to each other into account. So before we start talking about the city, we make sure everyone feels safe and knows the rules.
Meeting face to face takes effort. That is a good thing: it is around a shared table, not a screen, that neighbours start to really hear each other. Technology helps us, but it never replaces the conversation.
We first presented this approach in September 2026 in Kielce, at a workshop for architects.
- Toolsmaps, plans, photos, walks, drawing, debate, voting, AI
- Atmospheresafety, trust, curiosity, humility and knowing that it is not only my opinion that counts
- Forresidents, young people, families, city authorities and services, architects, researchers
Timeline
- September 2026KielceFirst presentation and tests
We present and test the concept with architects for the first time at the Chambers of Architects conference “Artificial intelligence, but a real revolution”.
- 19 November 2026Zodiak, Warsaw, 6 pm to 8 pmWorkshop at Zodiak, Warsaw Pavilion of Architecture
Come to the workshop. We will sit down together over a map of the city and explore how to talk about shared space and how technology can help.
- Next stepsSchools and local communitiesField tests
We are heading to schools and neighbourhoods to test the process where people really use shared space.
Project team
Architect, HUS
Partner and co-founder of HUS. For more than 15 years she has designed architecture, interiors and products, and at Tylko S.A. she develops parametric furniture systems. She looks for ways of designing closer to people and explores how AI can bring residents into the creative process.
Architect, HUS
Co-founder of HUS and a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. For 10 years she designed residential, public and commercial buildings. Understanding people’s needs matters most to her, and she treats AI as a tool that expands creative possibilities.
AI and visualisation systems
Programmer and graphics systems architect, working in television since 2003 and co-creator of the virtual studio system at TVN24. He works with Tylko S.A. on visualising parametric furniture and builds AI applications that help people make decisions.
Research manager
She leads research in the project: she plans how to collect and analyse residents’ voices and checks what each round of testing teaches us.