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Short abstract

This paper examines how creative participatory futuring methods can surface social values to inform inclusive, climate-resilient floating urban development. Drawing on three workshops, it shows how co-creation, (deep) mapping and serious gaming generate design-relevant insights for upscaling.

Long abstract

Abstract for academic paper presentation: Future cities require new urban development models capable of addressing climate risks, urbanisation pressures, and global sustainability goals. Floating urban developments are increasingly discussed as potentially climate-adaptive solutions for at-risk cities. However, developing and upscaling floating urban developments involves complex societal and environmental challenges that call for participatory and anticipatory approaches travelling between actors and scales, in order to achieve sustainable and socially grounded solutions for and pathways towards the future. Creative methods provide an opportunity to enhance the acceptability and inclusiveness of new floating urban developments by incorporating social values of potential future residents and stakeholders, illuminating what they desire, appreciate and prioritize. Therefore, our study explored such values, building on a series of three workshops conducted in Amsterdam, and involving professionals, current residents, and potential future residents. Through creative methods including the co-creation of scenarios, (deep) mapping and serious gaming, the workshops explored underlying social values of participants and their implications for future floating neighborhood design. The findings indicate that such creatively designed participatory approaches can result in design-relevant knowledge, supporting more inclusive and societally accepted floating urban developments. The paper also provides a methodological reflection on how participatory futuring practices can surface assumptions, expectations, and values to inform urban design and policymaking supporting resilient urban futures.

Keywords: Floating urban developments; urban climate resilience; participatory design; futuring; upscaling