The Horizon 2020 project U_CODE (Urban Collective Design Environment) aims to create an environment for urban co-design. Seizing the opportunity offered by emerging technologies to produce new forms of content and user engagement, U_CODE will design and develop a new kind of participatory platform that enables urban designers, architects, and developers to co-design and communicate their projects with the larger public. U_CODE will enable professional creatives to utilise the public´s creativity, to follow public opinions and sentiments, and to derive design intelligence from them. The design and decision making process will be informed and transformed by impulses of ‘citizen experts’ as a driving force.

U_CODE is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and is related to the topic ‘ICT-19-2015: Technologies for creative industries, social media and convergence' as it devises a new digital collaboration and communication platform for the creative industry.

The Product Innovation Management department of the faculty of IDE is partner in the project to provide expertise on co-creation and creative facilitation. From IDE, Katrina Heijne and Han van der Meer are participating in the project. U_CODE is coordinated by Technical University of Dresden Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture. The project runs from February 2016 until July 2019