Cultural mapping in smart sustainable cities: the Kashiwanoha Monogatari Project

In response to criticism, greenfield smart and sustainable city developers have paid increasing attention to their social impact by prioritizing placemaking and citizen involvement in their planning and development. However, citizens’ participation remains limited, and little is known about their everyday experiences, perceptions, and communities. While cultural mapping is an established process to build communities and articulate their identity, it has rarely been used in greenfield developments. This paper presents the Kashiwanoha Monogatari Project to demonstrate that cultural mapping can strengthen community ties and encourage citizen participation in new smart urban development. The paper details the cultural mapping project and its outputs, including lessons learned about citizen perception of their smart city. The findings suggest that cultural mapping provides citizens and planners with tools to visualize their emerging place-based narratives and communities by providing an alternative approach to co-creation with citizens.