Animating personalised networking in a student apartment complex through participatory design

This paper describes the research design of an ongoing case study in an apartment complex comprising approximately 160 international students in Brisbane, Australia. The objective of the study involves the design and development of an online community network to facilitate the creation and growth of a sustainable residential neighbourhood community. The study is informed by the PAD methodology which combines princi ples of participatory design with sociocultural animation. Preliminary research findings led to a new design strategy which takes Wellman’s theory of networked individualism into account. The new community building strategy allows for the diversity and individualism of tenants by working towards providing easy and convenient ways for tenants to identify birds of a feather and to conduct personalised networking. What may emerge from this process is an intricate web of so cial networks that span the anonymous void of the apartment complex itself, a web of “urban tribes”.