New Beginnings : Triggering Encounters in Public Place to Encourage a Sense of Community

Abstract: To increase social sustainability in cities and communities, interactions between community members is a key factor. This has engaged a research project on social sustainability, connected to an emerging urban district in Sweden. This research was done in collaboration with local stakeholders being part of this research project. Qualitative methods were used, including semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis. Design iterations has lead to a final design proposal for a public installation and technologically enhanced interaction, containing significant characteristics. The first characteristic is playful and exciting tiny-scale events happening in the everyday life that makes people in the same urban area to be aware of each other, giving opportunities for new relationships as well as enhancing their social and emotional connection to a place, what I call microevents. A second characteristic found is the loosely structured community, which entailed the focus on people of a community that has primarily the place in common, rather than a specific interest. Finally I identified the characteristic of villagescape that strives towards the village’s community in an urban environment. This concept contains a number of attributes, for example the acknowledgment of all people belonging to a specific urban place, the promotion of a welcoming, trustful and genuine feeling, and to keep thresholds low for meetings to occur between people.