Through the Eyes of Nature
Tell the story of Nordhavnstippen from the perspective of nature to elicit empathy between humans and urban biodiversity.
ROLE:
CLIENT:
Gehl Architects
Designer, workshop facilitator, testing
TECHNOLOGIES USED:
Unity, Blender, Ableton Live
Problem
Gehl Architects in Copenhagen sought novel ways to tell stories that would involve citizens more deeply in urban planning while addressing environmental sustainability. As urban areas expand, the challenge of integrating biodiversity into city planning becomes increasingly difficult, with limited public engagement around environmental issues. The project focused on how to foster more emotionally engaged discussions on urban biodiversity, particularly in the context of Nordhavnstippen, an urban green space in Copenhagen.
Reseach
This project explored the potential of virtual reality (VR) to reduce psychological distance and evoke empathy towards environmental issues. In collaboration with Gehl Architects, field trips, interviews, and co-design workshops provided insights into the local biodiversity at Nordhavnstippen and the emotional responses needed to engage the public. The research focused on how immersive VR could foster deeper, emotionally resonant discussions during participatory workshops.
Solution
A VR experience was developed, allowing users to see Nordhavnstippen from nature's perspective, using site-specific visuals and soundscapes to evoke empathy for the environment. The experience was tested in workshops and proved effective in generating more inclusive, emotionally driven conversations about urban biodiversity, showing how VR can enhance public engagement in environmental planning.
Process
This project emerged from a collaboration with Gehl Architects and explores how virtual reality (VR) can act as a catalyst for more emotionally engaged public discussions around urban biodiversity. Rooted in the specific context of Nordhavnstippen, a biodiverse green space in Copenhagen under pressure from urban development, we set out to create an immersive experience that would foreground nature as a stakeholder in the planning process.
Our design process was grounded in a multi-method approach:
Field Trips: We conducted multiple sensory visits to Nordhavnstippen, mapping soundscapes, collecting materials, and documenting the site’s emotional atmosphere.
Stakeholder Engagement: Through workshops with Gehl’s R&D team and interviews with local advocacy group Nordhavns Naturvenner, we gathered insights into the discursive and emotional challenges of promoting biodiversity in urban planning.
Creative Exploration: Using arts-based methods such as tangible prototyping and narrative writing, we iteratively developed the story arc and aesthetic direction of the experience.
Data Integration: We included location-specific data (e.g., soil deposit timelines, bird observations) and embedded them abstractly into the story to root the narrative in reality without becoming didactic.
The result was a functional prototype built for Meta Quest 3, intended to act as a shared emotional entry point for participatory workshops.
As part of our initial workshop with Gehl’s R&D team, we mapped out their hopes and prejudices toward VR.
This helped shape the direction of the prototype—not as a polished showcase, but as an engagement tool to foster emotional dialogue and shared understanding.
Prototype
The experience was built around a three-act narrative structure from the perspective of the land itself—personified as a conscious narrator formed by landfill and transformed by time and human activity.
Scene 1: The Setup
A calm sea disturbed by industrial machinery. The land awakens beneath deposited rubble, unsure of its purpose.
Scene 2: The Confrontation
New life emerges, but so does overwhelming noise and pressure from surrounding urbanisation. The narrator feels fragmented, battling between coexistence and collapse.
Scene 3: The Resolution
The viewer is invited to see the beauty of small-scale life. The narrator, though changed, embraces its role as a haven and asks for remembrance and care.
Physical prototypes using paper and organic materials shaped the mood, layout, and color palette of the final scenes.
Each scene was designed with a distinct color palette, atmosphere, and emotional tone—moving from melancholy (greyscale) to hope (pastel) to embrace (saturated).
To align the VR experience with both stakeholder needs and site-specific context, we developed this set of functional and non-functional requirements. The specifications were informed by workshops with Gehl, user interviews, and background research in urban planning, biodiversity, and immersive technology.
Evaluation and insights
To evaluate the impact of the VR experience on emotional engagement and group dialogue, we conducted a participatory workshop with five participants. The workshop was divided into two parts: a pre-VR discussion and activity, followed by the immersive VR experience and a post-VR session
Before entering VR, participants were invited to reflect on urban biodiversity and the future of Nordhavnstippen through image sorting and collage-making. After experiencing the VR narrative, the same prompts were revisited. This allowed us to observe changes in tone, vocabulary, and participation dynamics.
We used machine learning to analyze the transcribed discussions, revealing emo-tional shifts and patterns in the qualitative data.
This emotional language embedding shows that while participants used similar terms before and after the VR experience, their expressions became more varied and emotionally charged—suggesting deeper engagement post-VR.
Key Learnings from the Thesis Project
Emotion fosters inclusion – Emotionally engaging VR lowered barriers to participation, encouraging more people to share reflections and ideas.
Perspective-taking builds empathy – Letting nature “speak” shifted the focus from human needs to coexistence, making space for more-than-human narratives.
Abstraction invites interpretation – Using color, sound, and narration abstractly allowed participants to form personal connections to complex topics.
Co-design strengthens relevance – Collaborating closely with Gehl and nature advocates ensured the experience addressed real-world needs.
VR as a shared baseline – Using the VR experience as a common starting point aligned discussions and made group dialogue more meaningful.
The evaluation revealed VR’s potential as a tool for emotionally anchored public engagement in urban planning—offering new ways to bring softness, storytelling, and biodiversity into civic dialogue.