11.522: UIS Research Seminar (Fall 2008) - Discussion notes
Longer Term Objectives:
My broader focus is on how we might harness emerging technologies effectively to help us understand more about our built environment and to support decisions made as part of the (urban) design process. Connected to this is the changing nature of urban design practice given the rise of devices/sensors that allow the effective capture of close to real time data.
Background and Problem Framing:
In recent years, there is an increasing amount of literature surrounding the social implications, technological feasibility and possibility for a more cogent understanding of existing city networks through the use of new data sets obtained from sensors in the built environment. There is not yet, however, a clear debate on how these ideas could affect the discrete methodology of urban design.
As an initial research exploration for this Tuesday's class, I would like to examine the existing process of urban design, how this differs from urban planning and what possibilities there are for defining a new paradigm for urban design professionals. I will be doing this through firstly examining common conceptions of the profession and a number of practitioners with different approaches. I would then like to brainstorm about the major issues facing cities today, how the accessibility of real time information is effecting this and thus how the modus operandi that the urban practitioner will need to operate within must change.
Readings: Scans of the papers are available in the seminar project locker: /afs/athena.mit.edu/course/11/11.522/proj08/papers/christine_papers
Questions to discuss through and after the presentation include:
How has the information age transformed the issues that face cities today compared with 50 years ago? Which of these issues could require a designer with a solid knowledge about urban environments?
What understandings, besides an expert knowledge in space production and built form, must a new urban design professional have?
Given that most urban projects operate on a time scale of decades, can there be a new relationship between time and urban design now that we have increasing access to (near) real time information?
What types of things does Manuel Castells discuss in his article as contributing to a 'good' city?
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