Verena Kuen

The Human Factor: How co-creation, people engagement and new technologies revolutionize the way we innovate, in urban planning and beyond
Verena Kuen
Founder, 1030 Innovation Consulting

Cities are for the people who live in them. Creating places around the needs of residents leads to a much better experience with their daily environment. What’s needed for this, are methods and tools to efficiently grasp the point of view of “users” before you even start designing. Such approaches are tried and tested in other environments, but rather new to urban planning. Design Thinking, Co-Creation and Rapid Prototyping paired with social media engagement, digital tools and new technologies, such as blockchain, have huge potential in placemaking. See for yourself how much value you can create, if you start the design process by building empathy with your target user as well as by involving them in the creation process itself. A variety of tangible examples will be presented as well as some hands-on, easy to use tools to develop convincing results. 1030 Innovation works on a variety of projects in the fields of Energy, real estate and city development using a participatory approach, and Verena will share her first-hand experiences.

The Lectures in Planning Series (LiPS) is an initiative of the Urban Planning program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information or to make program suggestions, email lipscolumbiaplanning@gmail.com.