Developer/Company:
inCitu
Founder:
Dana Chermesh-Reshef
Vertical:
Architecture & Urban Planning
Customers:
Architecture & Construction Firms, Real Estate Developers, City Governments
Users/Consumers
Community Members (everyone!)
Primary Device:
Mobile
Distribution:
Snapchat & Off-platform App (Camera Kit)
Company Website
inCitu
Democratizing city planning by bringing future cities to life with AR.
Democratizing city planning with AR
Dana Chermesh-Reshef, Founder of inCitu (Top)
Ziv Schneider, Head of Design (Bottom)
What if you could see the future of development in your city? You might realize an unexpected implication of a new project that the developers missed, and share that information. You might make your voice heard on projects that could impact your quality of life. Or you just might be inspired to get involved and help shape your neighborhood for the better. It’s called community engagement, and it’s essential to successful cities. Researchers at the Urban Institute found that communities with higher levels of resident engagement in planning and development projects had better outcomes in terms of economic development, social capital, and community well-being. inCitu, founded by Dana Chermesh-Reshef, brings us that view of the future built environment to get more people involved in shaping it. The company’s mission is to “bring future cities to life via augmented reality, and empower residents, developers, and city governments to collaborate on the process of urban change.” In doing so, they turn messy and often inaccessible planning and development data into an elegant visualization of projects that can be viewed right where they will appear, in true scale, in-situ. Viewers can toggle between design proposals, experience first hand the impacts of shadows and scale, and get key information about the building—right from the street.
Chermesh-Reshef came to New York from Tel Aviv, where she worked as an architect for six years. Her experience in the profession gave her an inside view of urban planning processes, and highlighted the problems that need solving—like the need for better tools to engage the public and different stakeholders groups with complex visions, , and mostly, the need for greater visibility for residents that are impacted by projects. She also served as an F-15 & F-15I flight simulation instructor in the Israeli Air Force, which provided her with an understanding of the power of simulation and immersive technologies. With this background, she and Ziv Schneider—Head of Design at inCitu—quickly saw the potential for AR to serve as a useful tool for community engagement—which made Snap’s Ghost program a strong fit for inCitu. “Our focus on AR makes Snap a perfect partner for us, since they provide the most cutting-edge and accessible AR technology in the world,” they say.
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Our focus on AR makes Snap a perfect partner for us, since they provide the most cutting-edge and accessible AR technology in the world.”
Concept Sketches + Product in Use
A massive audience means massive engagement
While participating in the Ghost program, inCitu worked closely with the product and engineering teams to explore ways in which the Snap Map could amplify the visibility of new urban development projects. And they collaborated on integrating Camera Kit, Snap’s AR SDK that enables companies to build AR experiences in Lens Studio and embed them into their own platforms for richer AR experiences, into inCitu’s native app. “Camera Kit enables you to design interactions and visual effects easily. And we had access to a growing number of features, like multi user Lenses for shared interactions, custom land markers for geo-anchoring, the ability to connect to external APIs to enable features like real-time shadows, and more.” inCitu also took advantage of Snapchat’s accessibility and robust AR platform to reach their engagement goals. “One of the main challenges for us was overcoming app fatigue and getting people to download an urban planning app. It became clear that we need to meet people where they are, on the platforms they already use. For three of our projects, we piloted using an inCitu marker on the Snap Map, which led people to discover the AR experience organically.”
That resulted in a major improvement in engagement for projects featured on inCitu—like their visualization of a new proposed skyscraper development at 570 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The visualization in AR offers viewers the ability to toggle between different development plans for the site and see the impacts of shadows, scale, and more.
Within weeks, more than one hundred thousand people viewed the project in AR, which makes it “probably the most visible rezoning proposal in the history of city planning,” according to former Kansas City mayor Mark Funkhouser. Even better, the people they’re reaching are often the ones most visibly missing from your average community board meeting – young and diverse groups with a real stake in the neighborhood.
A powerful project, and a thriving partnership
During their time in Ghost, inCitu solved key technical and distribution challenges, met a great network of developers at events like Lens Fest, and dramatically increased the visibility and engagement of their product. “Snap supported us at every step. It's not obvious that they would do that for a young company that most people had never heard of. To be suddenly celebrated by a trusted name like Snap was really impactful.”
Sophisticated interactive Lens
What’s next for inCitu? They hope to bring many more developments to life through their platform, and expand to more urban areas across the US and beyond. Recently, they completed the AR-enablement of all the permitted physical structures of New York City, based on the city’s open databases, and are on the cusp of applying the same methodologies to six new cities (stay tuned!). They’re working to make it even easier for more people to engage with planning and development in their communities. And they’ll continue their productive relationship with Snap. “As we wrap up our Ghost fellowship, we are excited to share that we are joining Snap’s partner network. We’re very much looking forward to continuing to democratize access to the world’s future built environment in AR with Snap as partners.”
inCitu Snapcode