Research stages and outputs

The EcoDA co-production strategy focused on co-designing digital tools with potential users. These included architectural practitioners who have had a key role in initiating or supporting community resilience projects. This also includes the formal and informal local groups with whom they collaborate as part of these projects.

The co-design process involved three stages:

  1. Visioning: needs mapping workshops in London, Paris and Bucharest to better understand what resilience means in each urban context, and to define key needs for tools.

  2. Prototyping: research residencies in each of the three cities to engage with the local practitioners’ projects and prototype some of the tools defined in the previous stage.

  3. Reflection and transferring: co-reflection sessions held during the EcoDA Symposium to explore opportunities for ‘amplifying’ the locally-informed tools so that they gain wider relevance, beyond the initial context and user group.

Co-design outputs

The digital tools prototyped in Paris, London and Bucharest draw on the the specific characteristics of the practices employed by case studies and their individual resilience needs. The tools are intended to enable practices to become more sustainable in the long term and to support them in generating knowledge applicable to other locations. Tools have which aim to facilitate connections and knowledge-sharing between different practices and locations were also explored.

The EcoDA digital prototypes consist of existing digital technologies, adapted for the specific needs of the community practices for which they were developed. Each prototype (or toolkit) is an assembly of technologies, brought together via a ‘portal’ – each website is built using the Hotglue software as a base.

Toolkit prototyped as part of the Paris residency with AAA, offering tools for the self-management of community resilience hubs.

Toolkit prototyped as part of the London residency with Public Works, offering support tools for communities to resource urban commons initiatives.

Toolkit prototyped as part of the Bucharest with studioBasar, offering tools that encourage knowledge-sharing across a network of local libraries and engagement with their communities of users.

Toolkit prototyped as an outcome of a live project by Sheffield School of Architecture students and in collaboration with Public Works, offering tools for knowledge and skill sharing.

These toolkits are aimed at being transferrable and easy to reproduce, despite being developed for specific needs and challenges. The digital prototypes form the basis of a platform for commoning resilience practices. This platform has been initiated during the EcoDA Symposium and is open for future development and use beyond the EcoDA project.

Research outputs

The EcoDA project was presented at two international conferences:

Theoretical and methodological aspects of the project have been discussed in the following papers:

  • Baibarac, C. and Petrescu, D. ‘Open-source resilience: a connected commons-based proposition for urban transformation’ (forthcoming, Urban Transitions Conference Proceedings, Procedia Engineering)

  • Baibarac, C. and Petrescu, D. ‘Co-design and urban resilience: visioning tools for commoning resilience practices’ (under review, CoDesign Journal)

  • Baibarac, C, Langley, P. and Petrescu, D., ‘Open prototyping of digital tools for urban commoning’ (in progress)

  • Baibarac, C, Petrescu, D. , Axinte, A., Lang, A. and Petcou, C. ‘Open-source resilience through platforms for commoning civic practices: the EcoDA approach to urban transformation’ (in progress)