Urban Interventions and Participation Tools in Urban Design Processes: A Systematic Review and Thematic Analysis (1995 – 2021)

All cities need to change and transform to become more livable. Urban interventions are effective for observing the changes and participation tools are in use for collecting data from urban contexts. Nevertheless, the two research fields remain thematically disintegrated within themselves and between each other in the literature that spread across disciplines. This article aims to contribute to and advance the academic conceptualization of urban interventions and participation tools within urban design processes. In order to establish a solid basis and provide conceptual clarity, the research domains of two study fields are explored from 1995 through 2021. We conducted a thematic analysis covering 176 peer-reviewed publications in English. The studies on urban interventions are synthesized and categorized into five main thematic areas: urbanism, community, sustainability, building types, and participation; while the studies on participation tools are investigated within four thematic areas: participation, digital tools, representations, and responsive cities. We conclude that the two research fields are highly interrelated and need to be studied together. This systematic review would trigger new perspectives and directions in the future, and provide a well-conceptualized base that combines urban interventions and digital participatory designs for both theory-based and practical studies.