Better safe than sorry! A design intervention that triggers people to reflect on continuous spatial changes with an emphasis on local wind farm implementation

Abstract

In this master’s thesis, a design intervention is presented that triggers people to think about continuous spatial changes in their neighbourhood. It aims to create awareness of the ever changing character of the surroundings and make people more open and willing to support developments that are beneficial for the future. With an emphasis on local wind farm implementation, the final goal is to make local residents experience wind turbines less as a threat and to enable them to see how they can be beneficial for the neighbourhood. The project has been conducted in collaboration with Delft Institute of Positive Design and Energie-U. Energie-U is an energy cooperative of citizens in Utrecht. Start of this year their proposal for a wind farm located at the industrial zone Lage Weide in Utrecht was voted down by the city council. Although the majority of the public seems to support the idea of renewable energy, resistance within a community seems to arise whenever a wind farm is to be located nearby. An important reason for this is that people are often more sensitive to losses than to gains, i.e. we feel better safe than sorry (Johnson & Scicchitano, 2000). Future benefits, such as being independent of large energy companies and contributing to a sustainable future, fail to evoke positive emotions when people fear negative consequences of a having a wind-farm in their neighbourhood. Moreover, people are easily influenced by opposing teams that communicate in an emotional and provocative language. Positive messages of proponents, developers and local governments are often received with suspicion. Opposing opinions and fear for negative future consequences cause the majority of the public (64%, SmartAgent company, 2008) to remain undecided about implementation of a wind farm in the neighbourhood. Consequently, these circumstances cause local governments to often postpone or even cancel plans for wind farms. Exploration of the context was done through observations, expert and user interviews. Altogether this revealed the concerns and underlying goals of local residents that determine whether people are more likely to become opponent or proponent of a local wind farm. A main conclusion that was drawn from research is that concerns that evoke resistance are often triggered by fear for prospected change. While concerns that lead to support involve a more positive look towards changes; seeing them as an opportunity. People in doubt find it hard to make a decision regarding two primary concerns: they want to enable the community to produce and consume its own energy, but at the same time they want to prevent changes to the environment (i.e. local wind farm) that harm local identity. The proposed design intervention is a neighbourhood lookout point that is linked to an online platform. Via its design the concept subtly confronts local residents with the fact that opposing a specific spatial plan (i.e. a wind farm) is not a guarantee for the surroundings to remain as they are. Moreover it shows that every spatial plan comes with advantages and disadvantages for the neighbourhood. Residents are stimulated to think about spatial changes in a different, more open way and subsequently determine what they think is important for the neighbourhoods’ future. Besides reflection, the concept invites local residents to participate in spatial planning procedures in a new and more appealing way.