Urban Planning and Design
Having technology within a city means that we, as inhabitants, are living in relation with technology. A city is a dynamic system that concerns how nature is impacted by the agents of the designer, artifact, and user(s).
Cityscape As A Symbolic Object
A city is a complex object that necessitates a significant amount of resources to implement growth and development while maintaining the current status quo. Incorporating technologies within cities influence how the inhabitants of the space create meaning and understand the nature around them. The ability of residents to co-develop with their city is dependent on the semiotic components that are available to the user, and in cities with technological advancements, there is a growing need to properly model how meaning of the physical environment is translated into data for Internet of Things (IoT) processes.
Whitby, England
Tallinn, Estonia
Cities are living systems that look towards the future while preserving the past.
Bucharest, Romania
Designer-Artifact-User (DAU) System
Designer
The role of the designer is to create an artifact that can be integrated to perform a desirable function for a user.
Artifact
The artifact, within city includes active devices, which the user directly interacts with, and passive devices that are designed to relay data to other artifacts.
User
A user is someone who engages, interacts with an artifact(s) within the city space.
Key Components of Urban Planning and Design
Urban planning and design requires input from several stakeholders and consists of many phases and reiterations during the design process. Designing a city is an ecological and environmental act, and our focus is to better aim our relations to what we understand as nature.
Example Research Questions
1. How can a city utilize nature-based design to provide benefits for non-human inhabitants of a cityscape?
2. What methods can city organizations take to enhance participatory design of the stakeholders for a city?
3. What meaning-making events within a city are perceived as a negative outcome (e.g., traffic, waste debris, etc.) and what can be done to create a positive outcome for the inhabitants?
4. What are the grounds for creativity and innovation for inhabitants of a city?
