Simulations of urban transformations are an effective tool for engaging citizens and enhancing their understanding of urban design outcomes. Citizens’ involvement can positively contribute to foster resilience for mitigating the impact of climate change. Successful integration of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) into the urban fabric enables both the mitigation of climate hazards and positive reactions of citizens. This paper presents two case studies in a southern district of Milan (Italy), investigating the emotional reaction of citizens to existing urban greenery and designed NBS. During the events, the participants explored in Virtual Reality (VR) (n = 48) and Augmented Reality (AR) (n = 63) (i) the district in its current condition and (ii) the design project of a future transformation including NBS. The environmental exploration and the data collection took place through the exp-EIA© method, integrated into the mobile app City Sense. The correlations between the color features of the viewed landscape and the emotional reaction of participants showed that weighted saturation of green and lime colors reduced the unpleasantness both in VR and AR, while the lime pixel area (%) reduced the unpleasantness only in VR. No effects were observed on the Arousal and Sleepiness factors. The effects show high reliability between VR and AR for some of the variables. Implications of the method and the benefits for urban simulation and participatory processes are discussed.

Natural environments have a restorative effect from mental/attentional fatigue, prevent stress, and help to revitalize psychological and physical resources. These benefits are crucial for promoting active aging, which is particularly relevant given the phenomenon of population aging in recent decades. To be considered restorative, green spaces have to meet specific requirements in ecological and psychological terms that can be assessed through Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE), a multimethod approach commonly used by environmental psychologists and landscape architects after construction to evaluate the design outcomes from the users’ perspective. Generally, POEs consist of surveys and/or interviews accompanied by more or less structured observations of onsite users’ behavior. Despite this, various practical constraints can prevent physical access to the renovated area (e.g., weather conditions, time/resources limits, health issues, bureaucratic constraints). Exploiting digital tools for such an assessment can be a crucial support in such circumstances. The current study presents the visual POE of a restorative garden for older adults in Milan, Italy. We developed a web application, that includes the exp-EIA© patented method, which allows participants to virtually explore a visual simulation of the environment and provide their feedback. We identified 3 representative viewpoints in the redeveloped garden differing from each other for the functions and the design principles that inspired the transformation. For each point of view, we created 360° Virtual Reality photographs, that can be navigated by looking around, i.e., panning, from the standing point of each view. In connection to each virtual scene, a survey was conducted (N = 321). The focus was the psychological experience related to each viewpoint, assessed with two psychometric scales investigating the constructs of emotions (pleasure and arousal) and restoration (fascination, being away, coherence, scope, and environmental preference); such information is integrated with behavioral aspects, including the main activities prefigured by participants and their visual exploration of the VR photography. The results of the virtual exploration show that the garden is perceived as restorative, with a more intense effect in a spot purposely designed. The emotions experienced in the garden are positive and a mild level of arousal is observed. The behavioral dimension is characterized by predominantly contemplative activities and contact with nature. A cartographic representation of the psychological and behavioral data is developed, to support the maintenance of the garden.

The paper focuses on the design and development of an Augmented Reality (AR) app for public participation in urban transformations. The project, named "AR4CUP: Augmented Reality for Collaborative Urban Planning", is part of H2020 EIT Digital (Digital Cities) and involves the Augmented Reality company Artefacto, the university Politecnico di Milano, the research center VTT, and the Real Estate Developer Company Covivio. The project began in January 2019 and will end on December 2019. A pilot case study application will be carried out at the end of 2019 on an urban transformation project in the south of Milan (Scalo di Porta Romana), namely the design project VITAE, developed in the frame of the C40 Reinventing City.The AR4CUP project is organized in four main parts: analysis of customer's needs, development of the methodology for studying people experience in place, app design and implementation, pilot case study application with final users. The paper addresses the first phase. The AR4CUP AR app is able to: (i) show, directly on-site, urban and architectural proposals geolocated in real dimensions; (ii) gather citizens' emotional reactions to proposed urban transformations; (iii) automatically analyze the collected data; (iv) represent the outcomes of the analysis. The main customers of the app are Architectural Firms, Real Estate Developers, and Public Administrations, while the main target is citizens living in the area and future inhabitants, i.e. dweller and city users. The app contributes to (a) inform clients on citizens' perception on their design project, which might impact on its development; (b) inform and involve citizens in the urban transformation, enabling them to potentially play an active role in the decision-making process.The app aims at facilitating the collaboration among citizens, stakeholders, and public administrators, to induce a virtuous process that contributes to the co-creation of the future of cities. Such a tool allows to: (i) inform citizens about design projects; (ii) represent subjective points of view and compare the overall people perception of design outcomes to designer/developer/administrators' expectations; (iii) support negotiation and decision-making of public administrations and private companies in the urban design and planning field.

Urban settings affect the experience of people in places and the measurement of such urban experiences is the focus of this article. The ‘experiential Environmental Impact Assessment—exp-EIA©’ method and its application to the Città Studi area in Milan are presented. The method couples urban studies with environmental psychology and ICT for educational purposes with a sample of architecture students divided in two groups (N = 18). Experiential data are collected via a dedicated app installed on the participants’ mobile devices, and an automatic data processing and analysis produces spatialized results creating maps of the overall urban experience. In particular, the emotional reaction of participants through a ten-minute walking path is assessed. A group activity focused on the link between urban features and subjective evaluation of places by participants is combined with the results obtained via the application of the circumplex model of affect. Results show that the path is characterized by two main emotional experiences, passing from a pleasant to an unpleasant experience within the short walk in both groups, offering some insights on the urban design of the area. The results are part of the teaching process to increase students’ awareness about experiential design, yet the process is conceived also as a tool for professionals.

The contribution proposes the results of a pilot application of the method (exp-EIA© 2020 and 2021) developed within the European projects H2020 EIT Digital (Digital Cities): AR4CUP: Augmented Reality for Collaborative Urban Planning (2019 and2020). During these projects, we implemented an APP that favors participatory processes with citizens thanks to Virtual and Augmented Reality solutions to visualize and react to urban contexts in the current or designed condition. The method integrates experiential simulation with psychological constructs to represent the geography of experience in places. The case study presented in the paper was carried out at the neighborhood scale and investigates a particular target of users: university students in the Città Studi district in Milan, where Politecnico di Milano and the Università degli Studi di Milano are located. The results show, on average, a positive emotional experience, primarily linked to the symbolic places of the universities. The results provide an initial basis for a collective discussion on the relationship between people and the neighborhood. This study's outcomes contributed to developing the European projects and their final product, an innovative co-design app distributed as CitySense.