Luleå University of Technology: letting children reimagine their city

Imagine · Luleå University of Technology · 2026

On 19 January 2026, schoolchildren at a Luleå school photographed real streets around their city and reimagined them with an AI co-planning tool, working alongside Luleå University of Technology’s architecture department. The workshop became the starting point for an ongoing PhD on bringing children into mobility planning.

Who took part

Schoolchildren at a Luleå school, working with Luleå University of Technology’s architecture department.

What the tool did

Real streets around Luleå were photographed and reimagined with an AI co-planning tool, producing genuinely plausible urban-design ideas in the children’s own words rather than adult planning language.

What changed

The workshop is now feeding a PhD: Victor Nilsson’s doctoral research at LTU, within SICTA Next Generation Urban Mobility (SICTA-NGUM), is developing a methodology for using generative AI as a digital participation tool — testing whether an AI-driven approach can lower the barriers to engaging groups like children, who are usually left out of mobility planning. A six-part workshop series at a Luleå school has continued the model, with students acting as co-creators and critical evaluators using GenAI and VR to visualise infrastructure changes in real time; the results are now being converted into action proposals with Luleå Municipality.

Sources

• PhD project within SICTA-NGUM — Luleå University of Technology — ltu.se

Delivered together with project partners.