Service Design for participatory value creation in City Planning
Tiainen, Tuuva Melina (2025)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025070723607
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025070723607
Tiivistelmä
The objective of this thesis was to create an event concept for the City Planning Department of the City of Espoo, that could bring together multiple city plans to foster discussion about neighbourhood development on a wider scale. The commissioner was the Communications and Interaction team of the City Planning Department of the City of Espoo. Earlier feedback from the Planners and residents had revealed that need for additional discussion between them exists.
In the theoretical framework we covered topics about the ecosystem of city planning, such as the planning process, public participation and place attachment to understand the planning ecosystem, as well as behavioural drivers and motivations of participation. Also value creation was studied.
The triple diamond framework was used to guide the project. Three main stakeholders were identified as Planners, resident associations and Decision Makers. Methods such as interviews, workshops, questionnaires and observations were conducted in the research part, to find out what the meaning of a resident event is, what event characteristics are desired and what event related feasibility restrictions exist for each stakeholder.
Key findings were that discussion was indeed needed to create trust through transparency and open communication. We found that there was a need for resident associations to represent residents’ opinions and for Planners to get deep local knowledge to use for current and future city plans. The key characteristics that the stakeholders desired the event to have, were regularity, opportunity to multiply interaction for city plans and low threshold, pop-in style. The key feasibility restriction was resourcing and hence the event concept was designed to be as clear and predictable in workload as possible.
A concept presentation and explanation as well as a clear project plan and a feedback process for continuous learning were handed over to the commissioner. The event concept has been in use by the commissioner ever since and is already embedded in its ways of working. The concept has become part of the long-term communications and interaction development strategy within Espoo City planning Department. The concept has received praise from the commissioner as well as residents for increasing discussion opportunities and for the clear organizing process and predictable workload.
In the theoretical framework we covered topics about the ecosystem of city planning, such as the planning process, public participation and place attachment to understand the planning ecosystem, as well as behavioural drivers and motivations of participation. Also value creation was studied.
The triple diamond framework was used to guide the project. Three main stakeholders were identified as Planners, resident associations and Decision Makers. Methods such as interviews, workshops, questionnaires and observations were conducted in the research part, to find out what the meaning of a resident event is, what event characteristics are desired and what event related feasibility restrictions exist for each stakeholder.
Key findings were that discussion was indeed needed to create trust through transparency and open communication. We found that there was a need for resident associations to represent residents’ opinions and for Planners to get deep local knowledge to use for current and future city plans. The key characteristics that the stakeholders desired the event to have, were regularity, opportunity to multiply interaction for city plans and low threshold, pop-in style. The key feasibility restriction was resourcing and hence the event concept was designed to be as clear and predictable in workload as possible.
A concept presentation and explanation as well as a clear project plan and a feedback process for continuous learning were handed over to the commissioner. The event concept has been in use by the commissioner ever since and is already embedded in its ways of working. The concept has become part of the long-term communications and interaction development strategy within Espoo City planning Department. The concept has received praise from the commissioner as well as residents for increasing discussion opportunities and for the clear organizing process and predictable workload.