IN-PERSON Manchester Livable Cities
Abstract
This paper introduces a novel framework for digital citizen participation, conceived within the ongoing Modellprojekte Smart City (MPSC) Dresden funded by the German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building. The approach seeks to enhance municipal decision-making by citizen engagement through the systematic collection, translation, and integration of citizens’ needs into administrative processes. At its core is a shared Urban Data Platform and a modular participation toolbox comprising digital and analogue instruments and methods for generating, managing, and analyzing citizen input. The framework identifies and addresses two forms of participation: a) conventional project-based participation and b) the novel form of emergent engagement, characterized by continuous, low-threshold input beyond predefined planning cycles. This allows for citizen-driven contributions to agenda-setting for urban development and long-term urban governance. The concept builds upon insights from the Horizon2020 project U_CODE, which explored co-creative planning in urban design contexts. This methodology is extended to broader domains, such as mobility, social infrastructure, and environmental planning. This new model for citizen driven and data-informed governance aims to serve as a replicable blueprint for city development. The proposed framework systematically describes and analyzes the current administrative process to identify potential points of interlinkage with citizen inputs. A crucial factor and still open research challenge remains the translation of these inputs into planning-relevant information. The paper concludes by outlining an inclusive engagement model for needs-based decision making in urban development.
Anja Jannack, Dipl.-Ing. is a trained architect, graduated at TU Dresden in 2011 and works as a Research Associate. She is Managing Director and Unit-Lead Participation & Co-Creation of WISSENSARCHITEKTUR – Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture. Besides teaching she currently works in the Model Project Smart City Dresden and leads the sub-project “Smart Participation”. Before she led tasks in EU Project SMAGRINET, MATchUP and worked on the U_CODE – Urban Collective Design Environment: A new tool for enabling expert planners to co-create and communicate with citizens in urban design.
Sebastian Wiesenhütter is a research associate at the TU Dresden’s Faculty of Architecture, currently working on the Modellprojekt Smart City Dresden (MPSC). With a background in architecture and over a decade of interdisciplinary project experience in digital design, knowledge architecture, and smart city research, he contributes to experimental design approaches and innovation processes. His work spans international research collaborations, teaching, and numerous publications at the intersection of design, technology, and urban systems.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Rainer NOENNIG (*1973) is Professor for Digital City Science at the HCU HafenCity Universität in Hamburg and also directs the WISSENSARCHITEKTUR Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture at TU Dresden. He studied architecture at Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Polytech Krakow and Waseda University Tokyo. Between 1998 and 2001 he practiced as architect in Tokyo. From 2001 he was Research Associate at TU Dresden, where he was appointed Junior Professor for Knowledge Architecture (2009-2015). He worked at different Universities outside Germany, such as the Universita degli Studi dell l’Aquila, the ISEN Toulon, TU Woronesch and the Toyo Universität Tokyo.
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Wednesday 17th June, 2026