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Introducing City Layers
An innovative city-making app that empowers citizens to shape the changes they want to see in their cities!
With City Layers, citizens can use tags, textual comments, photographs, sliders, suggestions and votes to easily identify, record and reflect upon all material and immaterial “layers” of their cities. These layers include accessibility, noise, safety, aesthetics, weather resistance, amenities and many other features of any urban space. Citizens can add thoughts on how to improve them, or they can also react to others’ posts. City Layers therefore embody the motto “act local to go global” by relying on citizen mapping as a holistic and inclusive city-making practice that aims to tackle the contemporary spatial, social and environmental challenges our cities are facing. This powerful city mapping app serves as a means of communication between cities and their citizens, generating a new type of data that is collectively generated, managed and cared for.
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Citizen Science Award 2023 - Participate and Win!
City Layers has been selected to be a part of the Citizen Science Award 2023!
On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization (ÖAD) invites schools and pupils, as well as people of all ages to participate in the Citizen Science Award. The most dedicated citizen scientists (participants) will receive cash and non-cash prizes, which will be awarded at a ceremony during the 2nd Young-Science Congress on October 19, 2023.
Participate from April 15th to July 31st!
As part of the Citizen Science Award, dedicated citizen scientists can actively participate in the City Layers project and contribute crucial data towards shaping the future of our cities! The Citizen Science Award aims to inspire all citizens regardless of age, to engage in research and innovation and actively participate in research projects. Therefore, families can also participate and win, in addition to school classes and individuals.
Citizens’ engagement is rewarded: participating school classes can win up to 1,000 Euro and individuals and families will receive valuable non-cash prizes.
A. How to participate?
Using the City Layers Web-App on smartphones, tablets and such, it is possible to rate and capture the key features of any urban space of choice, including accessibility, noise, safety, aesthetics, weather resistance and amenities. Citizen scientists can use the City Layers Web-App to capture all relevant features of their surroundings, as well as thoughts on their improvement, using tags, comments, photos, sliders, suggestions, and votes. No download or installation of an app is necessary! Register HERE
B. Prizes and awards
School classes can look forward to cash prizes for their class funds:
1st place: 1,000 Euro
2nd place: 750 Euro
3rd place: 500 Euro
Non-cash prizes provided by the Technische Universität Wien and our project partners will be awarded to individuals and families. The school classes and citizen scientists with the highest number of valuable contributions to the City Layers Web-App will be awarded.
C. What happens with the contributions of citizen scientists?
City Layers Web-App prioritises data anonimity and does not collect any personal data. The contributions of citizen scientists will be made accessible online as a form of commons for active use by citizens and city planners. The collected data will enable a basis for better dialogue on future urban interventions between the citizens and city-planners. The public will be fully informed about the intention of publication and prior consent will be sought and documented.
Additional information on the Citizen Science Award
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City Layers research overview
How can we make future urban interventions more in sync with the citizens’ needs? How can citizens themselves contribute to the spatial changes they want to see in their cities?
The project City Layers: Citizen Mapping as a Practice of City-Making funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) introduces an innovative framework for city-mapping which centres on citizen experience of urban space as an integrative way to contribute to more livable cities. The research aims to deepen the engagement between citizens and urban design by offering an app-based participatory tool that allows citizens to identify, record and reflect upon a range of different material and immaterial parameters in their cities, including accessibility, noise, safety, aesthetics, weather resistance, amenities and many more. The innovative city mapping app aims to become a means of communication between citizens and the city, with the aim of creating a new type of data that is collectively generated, managed and cared for.
By recognizing and voicing their subjective experiences in specific spaces, citizens procure meaning and values, but also provide valuable data on how these spaces can be improved. Citizens' contributions are made available online for active use. This innovative mapping tool thus aims to reorganise individual observations into collective knowledge and brings out the strengths of citizen participation in urban design. The collected data is intended to enable a basis for a better dialogue between those who use urban space and those who plan it. Therefore, the research recognises the citizen science approach as a democratic and urgent strategy for identifying the essential components which constitute a city.
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Project team
The project is based at the Department of Visual Culture, School of Architecture and Planning, Technische Universität Wien
Our multidisciplinary team consists of:
Lovro Koncar-Gamulin, lead researcher and author of the “City Layers” mapping tool
Peter Mörtenböck, project director of “platFORMed city”, base project of “City Layers: Citizen Mapping as a Practice of City-Making”
Angelos Chronis, app implementation and UX advisor
Firas Safieddine, app development expert
Honorata Grzesikowska, app development expert
Androniki Pappa, researcher
Evelina Jaskulska, researcher
Carmen Lael Hines, researcher and outreach expert
Bilal Alame, research assistant
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Contact us!
If you have any questions about the project or the City Layers Web-App contact us at info@citylayers.com