Projects: Bristol Housing Festival 2.0

After completing the "conference circuit," the development of City Blocks made a significant leap forward with the creation of City Blocks 2. This next iteration, developed with support from Arup, focuses on enabling community input into local development opportunities as part of a consultation process. The platform now allows users to interact with urban design in a more dynamic way, directly reflecting changes in real-time.

The key technical upgrade in City Blocks 2 is its scenario-driven nature. Unlike its predecessor, the new platform generates the urban space in real-time, updating the virtual environment as designers make adjustments to the physical Lego model. As users move a Lego brick, the city model updates simultaneously, providing immediate visual feedback. As before, the platform uses colour coding to represent different features such as parks, high-rise apartments, and business districts, with users able to explore the city in Virtual Reality at their own pace. The scenario for this iteration centers around the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and City Blocks 2 offers an immersive, digital view of the surrounding space, facilitating a deeper connection with the area and its potential for future development. A more detailed explanation of the technical changes will be covered in a future blog post.