Bridging the gap between technical and local knowledge: Tools for promoting community-based planning and design

Planners and designers have recently shown a renewed interest in community- based planning. Planning theorists have developed new paradigms arguing tha t they are not technical analysts but, instead, communicators who generate plans through give-and-take dialogues with the public (Innes, 1998). This p aper describes several visual communication tools - including an image-base d Geographical Information System (GIS), an artist, a scale model, and pape r maps - that were used during participatory planning in Chicago's Pilsen n eighborhood. Building on the seminal work of Kevin Lynch in The Image of th e City, the "export" team at the University of Illinois constructed an imag e-based GIS that provided visualization of the neighborhood. Building on th e seminal work of Kevin Lynch in The Image of the City, the "expert" team a t the University of Illinois constructed an image-based GIS that provided v isualization of the neighborhood. The artist used these images as a basis t o develop sketches that gradually revealed participants' visions. The paper closes by evaluating the employed visualization tools, discussing pros and cons of using GIS, and suggesting ways to reduce communication gaps betwee n design professionals and community residents.