An interactive pole for Crooswijkers: Designing low-threshold participation and rebuilding trust
P. van Os (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
I.J. Mulder – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
F. Sleeswijk Visser – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
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Abstract
Crooswijk is a neighbourhood in Rotterdam that has been dealing with issues regarding trust in the municipality, and residents have not been participating much anymore. Crooswijkers feel unheard and left in the dark whenever plans are developed and executed. The main challenge that the design should solve: Improve the low level of trust currently present in Crooswijk, and set the residents up for more participation activities and overall engagement, by utilizing and building upon the newly elected neighbourhood council. The concept entailed seven interactive poles, each matched to one of the newly elected neighbourhood councilmembers. The poles would make these members visible in the neighbourhood, and let residents interact with it and give some low-threshold input, while also getting feedback on this input quickly. The concept aimed to build upon the strengths of the neighbourhood council, namely the personality of the people on it, and the recognisability that they possess, being neighbours of the other Crooswijkers. The concept was validated with residents and candidate councilmembers, leading to some important input for iterations. Besides this concept, an overarching strategy was developed that focused on using the poles as a stepping stone to slowly get Crooswijkers more involved and used to participation, and gradually nudging them over to the other participation contexts, namely the municipality’s digital participation platform MijnRotterdam, and the physical neighbourhood hubs.