Nusantara Capital City 2024
Public imagination for a capital being built from scratch.
The tool empowered the future residents of Indonesia’s planned capital, Nusantara, to actively visualize and integrate their aspirations into the city’s foundational development.
Context
Client
Nusantara Capital City Authority,
University of Turku
Location
Argo Mulyo, Indonesia 🇮🇩
Year
2024
The “Foresight for Resilient Cities” initiative was established to understand how different stakeholders perceive the massive urban transformation required to build Nusantara. Funded by Business Finland, the project was a major collaboration between the University of Turku’s Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS), the Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC) and the Nusantara Capital City Authority (OIKN). The challenge was to develop a reliable method for expressing the future residents’ expectations as visual data that could directly inform the city’s blueprint.
Engagement method
An AI co-planning tool was used in a workshop involving 30 participants from a wide array of sociodemographic backgrounds, including students, housewives, civil servants, traders and SMEs. Guided by architecture experts from Universitas Mulawarman, the collaborative process unfolded in two phases:
- Phase 1: Abstract Ideation. Using a blank canvas, groups utilized the tool to brainstorm and generate broad development concepts by mixing various functions and descriptions. This open-ended approach allowed them to experiment, adjust, and ultimately refine their favorite ideas into precise custom prompts.
- Phase 2: Contextual Application. Participants then took their refined prompts and applied them directly to real photographs of key Nusantara sites. By interacting with the platform via their mobile phones, they seamlessly overlaid their visions onto the actual landscape.
Throughout the sessions, dedicated notetakers tracked all converging, diverging, and even abandoned ideas to capture a comprehensive record of the community’s creative process.
Impact
The Nusantara workshops demonstrated the profound power of generative AI in modern urban planning, setting a strong precedent for community-led design.
- Elevated Communication: By generating vivid, AI-powered images, participants could articulate complex architectural and urban concepts far more effectively than with words alone.
- Meaningful Inclusivity: Engaging participants from different backgrounds ensured that the developmental plans for the new capital were deeply rooted in diverse, real-world perspectives.
- Strategic workflow: Moving from blank-canvas brainstorming to site-specific photographic rendering proved highly successful in turning abstract aspirations into concrete, realistic blueprints for future public service facilities.
Delivered together with project partners.