VIRTUALNI URBANI LABORATORIJ (VULAB) ZA VKLJUČEVANJE JAVNOSTI V NAČRTOVANJE URBANEGA PROSTORA.

This article explores how simple and widely available digital visual tools can improve the level of public participation in urban design from the early planning and design stages onwards. When reviewing the tradition of public participation, illustrated by the example of the city of Koper, it was found that traditional methods and techniques were generally applied there. As an example, let us mention an urban laboratory "Does Koper live?" (Žakelj et al., 2014), which was based on a walkable photo, taken from the air, on which people were able to post pieces of paper with their opinions, visions and wishes. It demanded the physical presence of the users in a specific location. This paper aims to contribute to further development of the process of public participation in Slovenia and provide digital tools needed to simplify and improve this process. Urban design is a complex process, and with this article we want to show how very important it is to involve in it as many different experts and, last but not least, people who will use a specific urban space as possible. The main research problem can be seen in the lack of dialogue, communication and collaboration between the public and the members of the profession, but also within the profession itself (lack of interdisciplinary collaboration). The aim of this paper is to presentnew opportunities and challenges for public involvement in planning and design. By presenting digital tools, our goal is to help create a shared urban vision and a quality living environment, get better final projects and, at the same time, increase user satisfaction and the transfer of knowledge between all participants in the urban design process. For this purpose, we designed a Virtual urban laboratory, VuLab: this is a mix of various digital tools for communication, collaboration, planning and education of the public and the profession, and for effective collaboration in urban design during which 3D models in the virtual world Terf play the most important role. The principal part of the paper focuses on 3D city models and virtual world Terf as tools for public participation in urban design. By conducting semi-structured interviews with representatives of the public and the profession, we were able to study the virtual world Terf, focusing mainly on the tool for decision-making and assessment of the attitude of the public and the members of the profession to urban space. Conclusions tell us that the Virtual Urban Laboratoy is suitable for public involvement in the urban design process, as it connects different tools and methods, as well as allows collaboration between various members of the public and the profession. The results of semi-structured interviews show us, among other things, that the public can better imagine the proposals of urban redesign via experiential 3D model walk-throughs, and that 3D models in virtual worlds can increase and improve public participation with regard to spatial issues, as well as increase motivation for participation among younger generations. The potential for further development of VuLab is highlighted at the end of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]