NEWSUB

In 2010, Kollision, 3XN and Stantec competed for the new Student Union Building at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. In April 2010, the team presented its competencies and ideas for the student body at the UBC Campus. As part of the presentation Kollision created the website www.newsub.org.

Based on our AELIA-model for citizen participation, Kollision suggested a number of activities, installations and workshops aimed at engaging students and others in the design process for the new Student Union Building. The ideas was to get the Attention of the students, keep them interested in participation through novel Experiences, build capacity through a Learning process, let them Influence the project directly and support cooperation and Action. The overall idea was to create a dialogue-based participatory design process supported by interactive installations and a targeted media strategy using websites and social media combined with hands-on experiences and workshops.

The first step was a website based on an early version of our MapWeb software, presenting the team and its competencies. By using the MapWeb software we could easily expand the website, change the layout and content based on the users’ preferences and wishes during the process. The student committee  evaluating the teams credited our team for taking the participation process seriously and for using new media and interactive technology in novel ways. The competition was won by B&H Architects.