There are web communication tools that architects, designers, and urban planners can utilize to communicate more effectively. The process of design review, community meetings, and field work can be eased with communication applications that output to visualization. Firms should start with their own website. There are too many architecture/planning firms with outdated websites which hinders their ability to sell design services. Portfolio maps in Google Earth can be a great way to showcase your projects and leverage an affordable technology.
Your website should facilitate a conversation around your projects, community, and city in which you work. It should be easy for you to post content to your site and social networks automatically. Facebook, Twitter, Ning, and third party sites such as AIA KnowledgeNet (via RSS) can be connected so that anything posted on your site appears on other sites as well. You should be able to monitor your effectiveness in driving traffic and interest.
Visualizing building data can be quite useful and help to showcase development in context. Emerging technologies in Augmented Reality among other web-based tools can “mashup” GIS, CADD, and databases into one viewing environment for the web and mobile devices.
Citizen commenting applications are hot right now. Anything that solicits community feedback will drive traffic and provide a platform for community dialog. Podcast tours that combine images and audio can be effectively used for guided tours to educate visitors and residents about the past, present, and future of a place.
Urban planners struggle with visualizing streetscape improvements. Commercial streetscape improvement plans (such as TIF districts) can be interactive to show before and after development. For districts with facade improvement programs, the visualization can show a business owner what appropriate alterations such as windows, signage, entryways, and planters would look like. In historically sensitive areas, a new development can be derailed if the community doesn’t like it. Interactive visualization of the proposed building’s facade allows for individual features such as porches versus juliette balconies or a pitched versus flat roof to be switched out during a community meeting. Cost factors can be attached to each concession to monitor design changes the market could actually support. I’ve been in many community meetings where the developer had a difficult time communicating with residents because he didn’t have a way to interactively show alternatives and the costs attached to them. Ultimately, these community meetings ended with communication failure.
If you struggle to utilize visualization and communication strategies, then you need an expert who knows how to affordably leverage technology for your profession.
