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Infill development has been seen as one of the solutions to urban challenges. However, it changes the dynamics and visual appearance of the neighborhood. As infill development usually requires the acceptance of local stakeholders, their perceptions of the resulting intensified housing have a significant role. In this study, customized visualizations illustrating scenarios of infill development were made from the perspective of individual apartments in neighboring residential building. The usefulness of customized visualizations for local stakeholders was studied in the Tammela test area. A 3D virtual model of the existing environment was created. Models depicting the alternative infill buildings were added to the 3D model, which was used to create customized visualizations. These visualizations were utilized in the interviews of local stakeholders. The findings indicate that the customized visualizations help stakeholders conceptualize the impact, and plan and manage the infill development. Visualizations can also be seen as a tool for a resident-driven approach to intensifying housing.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study views of owner-occupiers concerning infill development as a mechanism for financing major repairs in apartment buildings and financial benefits they require from the infill development for accepting it near their homes (on the plot of their housing company). Design/methodology/approach The data used draws upon a survey of 894 respondents concerning residents’ views on infill development in Finland. The required financial benefits from the infill development were questioned in both relative proportions of the expenses related to major repairs and concrete monetary sums. Findings First, the findings indicate that the financial benefits owner-occupiers require in order to accept infill development are significant, covering about two-thirds of the costs of major repairs during following ten years or over 75 percent of an (imagined) upcoming pipeline repair. Second, approximately one-fifth of the respondents regard that no economic benefit is enough to make them support infill development. Third, people’s decision-making concerning infill development is complex, involving also many other factors than monetary. Practical implications This paper provides insight into the feasibility of infill development as a means to finance major repairs from the perspective of owner-occupiers. The paper has strong policy implications as it highlights the significance of the public authorities and their policies in enabling the infill development. Originality/value This is the first academic study to focus on owner-occupiers views and financial requirements for the infill development as a means to finance major repairs in apartment buildings.

3D city models and their browser-based applications have become an increasingly applied tool in the cities. One of their applications is the analysis views and visibility, applicable to property valuation and evaluation of urban green infrastructure. We present a near real-time semantic view analysis relying on a 3D city model, implemented in a web browser. The analysis is tested in two alternative use cases: property valuation and evaluation of the urban green infrastructure. The results describe the elements visible from a given location, and can also be applied to object type specific analysis, such as green view index estimation, with the main benefit being the freedom of choosing the point-of-view obtained with the 3D model. Several promising development directions can be identified based on the current implementation and experiment results, including the integration of the semantic view analysis with virtual reality immersive visualization or 3D city model application development platforms.

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Digital 3D geometric models have become a central tool for geo-information. For many participatory and collaborative applications, distributing these models easily is essential. Several technical solutions exist for creating online systems that facilitate the study of 3D models in the context of the built environment. To provide an overview on browser based interactive 3D visualizations, we present a set of existing systems applied in Finland, and discuss their common properties and differences. To obtain first-hand experience, we experiment with an online 3D application development platform. The systems studied show a high potential for browser based 3D applications: interactive visualizations with multi-user characteristics and dynamic elements can be built by leveraging the 3D web technologies. Finally, we suggest a framework for discussing browser based 3D systems, covering the spectrum of possibilities available in modern web-based 3D for built environment applications.

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