Augmented reality (AR) technologies offer innovative possibilities for creating virtual artworks that seamlessly blend digital and physical elements, thereby enhancing public spaces and engaging users with both their environment and the AR content. Key concepts for assessing user experiences in AR environments include immersion, with subcategories that further elaborate on this concept. This research aims to explore the potential of AR as a tool for presenting and evaluating artworks in public spaces, with a particular focus on user engagement and immersion in AR content. Additionally, it seeks to determine whether significant differences in immersion levels exist between specific categories of virtual sculptures. Ten sculptures were displayed as mobile AR experiences in a selected public square. To achieve these objectives, a standardized questionnaire designed to measure immersion in location-based AR applications was adapted, validated, and applied. The results provide valuable insights into user experiences with different categories of AR artworks, such as digitized versus digitally created models and figurative versus abstract representations.

The surge in shopping center construction within urban areas, especially without a strategic plan, has been particularly notable in Eastern Balkan cities during the 21st century. This tendency may lead to decreased economic activity and noticeable shifts in social and cultural dynamics. The primary objective of this study is to introduce and apply the Methodology for Determining Architectural Programs (MDAP), a mathematical model designed to optimize the planning process of shopping centers. Focused on spatial disposition and internal program distribution, MDAP extends the foundational Huff model by incorporating relevant economic parameters—consumers’ purchasing power and potential investors’ costs. Examining the city of Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia, the results indicate the consistency of the MDAP’s results compared to the application of the basic Huff model. This approach could contribute to a more balanced economic distribution within cities, promoting social and cultural relations while offering investors a relevant feasibility study and preserving shopping centers’ profitability. This study underscores the significance of considering social sustainability in urban planning, emphasizing how strategic urban retail development can positively impact social dynamics alongside economic viability by maximizing the potential utilization of existing retail spaces. However, potential limitations include unforeseen social, economic, and political factors influencing shopping center location decisions, posing challenges in real-world applications relying on complex social relations.

Social sustainability in urban and architectural design depends on inclusive, participatory processes that empower communities to actively engage in shaping their environments. This study investigates how emerging digital platforms, specifically Augmented Reality (AR) and decentralized platforms built on blockchain technology (Web3), can function as instruments for broadening public participation and enhancing perceptual access to urban art proposals. An original algorithm generated nine digital abstract sculptures, each with descriptive attributes forming the basis for qualitative analysis across different visualization modes: traditional renderings, Augmented Reality environments, and NFT-based Web3 representations. Through participant voting, each digital sculpture accumulated a measurable level of preference that served to identify which sculpture was perceived as most successful within each visualization context. Comparative analysis revealed how distinct digital interactions shape perception, engagement, and inclusivity of feedback processes. Regression models further predicted voting outcomes, showing that different sculptural attributes played a dominant role depending on the type of visualization. Findings indicate that platform-specific technological affordances substantially shape participatory outcomes. Consequently, the study argues that careful analysis and selection of the digital platform must precede any participatory process, as platform-specific affordances fundamentally condition the inclusivity, accessibility, and overall effectiveness of public engagement in socially sustainable design.

Technologies such as cellular automata, genetic algorithms, and artificial intelligence have greatly expanded the range of possible architectural and urban solutions. The challenge is no longer only how to generate form, but how to interpret, evaluate, and select among multiple outcomes produced within computationally open-ended systems. When such generated alternatives are understood as collections, selection can be approached as a curatorial act. This article introduces the concept of algo-scapes: potentially extensive algorithmic landscapes whose meaning emerges only through processes of human discernment, comparison, and choice. To examine the broader logic of such selection, the study adopts a two-phase comparative design based on two parallel surveys. In the first phase, responses from 32 collectors of material objects are used to examine how collections are expanded and evaluated under conditions of differentiation, coherence, and spatial limitation. In the second phase, responses from 50 architects, urban planners, and interior designers are analyzed in order to determine whether analogous patterns can be identified in the ways spatial systems are developed, modified, and brought to temporary states of completion. The findings suggest that the strongest similarity between the two domains lies not in identical criteria of evaluation, but in a shared structure of selective growth based on addition, differentiation, limitation, and temporary completeness. While collectors place greater emphasis on uniqueness, aesthetic value, and personal attachment, architects, urban planners, and interior designers prioritize systemic fit, improvement, and contextual coherence. The article argues that the logic of collection can serve as a useful interpretive model for understanding architectural, urban, and algorithmic design systems, provided that it is understood structurally rather than literally. In this sense, algo-scapes are not meaningful simply because they can generate many alternatives, but because they require meta-level criteria through which meaningful configurations can be selected from potentially open-ended fields of possibility.