# The Soundscape Hackathon as a Methodology to Accelerate Co-Creation of the Urban Public Space
## 6 Conclusions  
This paper investigated the hackathon format as a way to generate ideas and creative concepts for applying the soundscape approach in urban public space design. In a typical hackathon, people from different fields participate, applying their own specific knowledge and expertise to the topic. This mix of backgrounds and points of view may create innovative approaches and accelerates outside-the-box ideas. To test this approach, a Soundscape Hackathon was organized in Ghent, Belgium on 3-5 April 2019. The participants of the hackathon were challenged to design a series of urban soundscape interventions, to apply them using a range of virtual reality visualization and auralization technologies that were available at the hackathon venue, and finally to present their solutions to colleagues in the field and to a professional jury. This paper described the process and results of the event, and discussed the benefits and shortcomings of a soundscape hackathon. Such an event not only creates creative and interactive concepts, methods or tools in context of co-creation, but when a broad mix of participants with different backgrounds is selected, it can be a reflection of all stakeholders involved in the co-creation process. It is even possible to include a broad audience in the event, extending the co-creation idea even further. Given that this was the first soundscape hackathon edition, some practical shortcomings such as the organization of the final presentations were to be expected. By taking into account that participants can possibly oversimplify important aspects such as physical soundness, safety or cost on the one hand, or that their creativity can be limited by strict time constraints or the aspect of competition on the other hand, the hackathon methodology can still be improved. Both participants and organizers perceived the event as successful, and found it interesting to see how young scientists and young professionals came up with creative solutions, immersive approaches and artistic presentations. Although the creativity of the participants was as expected and they exclusively used the provided technologies, the organizers were surprised and impressed by the level of the teams' solutions, especially given the short time frame. All in all, this first soundscape hackathon edition showed that the format and main concepts of a hackathon are well suited to be applied in urban sound design, and that the format may present a viable approach for accelerating the co-creation of the urban public space.  
Conceptualization, P.D., D.B. and B.D.C.; methodology, J.D.W., K.F., B.M., P.D., D.B and B.D.C.; formal analysis, J.D.W., K.F., B.M., P.D., D.B. and B.D.C.; investigation, J.D.W., K.F. and B.M.; resources, M.L., D.B. and B.D.C.; writing-original draft preparation, J.D.W., B.M. and B.D.C.; writing-review and editing, J.D.W., K.F., B.M., P.D., D.B. and B.D.C.; visualization, J.D.W.; supervision, P.D., M.L., D.B. and B.D.C.; project administration, D.B. and B.D.C.; funding acquisition, B.D.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by the HEAD Genuit Foundation grant number P-16/11-W \"Urban Soundscapes of the World\". The support of this foundation is gratefully acknowledged. The research was part of C3 PLACES (\"Using ICT for co-creation of inclusive public spaces\"), and received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Urban Europe) under grant agreement no. 693443.  
The authors want to thank all participants and jury members of the first Soundscape Hackathon.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.