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Week 5: On the delicate nature of beginnings

The purpose of this studio is to work on projects which genuinely interest me in new areas. Areas which I find more fertile and fun than some of those which are so heavily mediated at the moment like mobile phones, social media, interactive TV. The studio’s focus is broadly on networked places and things.

Of course there is a need to make the studio sustainable. This will be done by a mixture of consultancy, contract work and creation of small products which explore an area or represent a proof of concept. It is intended these products will also have some commercial value.

This week has mainly been devoted to hacking out a proof of concept for a project which has been on the ‘someday maybe’ list for quite some time. Like any idea at an early stage it is very delicate. I prefer to build on the idea with actions rather than talking about it at this stage. Suffice to say its something to do with feedback loops and its currently under the working title of ‘Atmosphäre’.

Just so you know its not just coffee and croissants here…

Week 3: Invisible cities

In the  city the net effect of our actions can be difficult to perceive. As conscientious citizens we strive to be positive, to regulate our power consumption and choose low emission transport for ourselves and the public good. How do we know if our efforts are making a difference at all? Can others be encouraged?

According to Dr Agneta Fischer, who specialises in ‘emotional contagion’, positive collective activity encourages others to move towards that behaviour also. By visualising the invisible activity of the city, its mood, its power consumption its emissions as public landmarks we can create positive feedback loops to improve our quality of life.

Current happiness based on random public captures and facial recognition software. (Public Face I)


Current energy consumption based on output of power plant. (Nuage Vert)

Current pollution level based on environmental sensors. (Eco Halo)

Week 2: Emotional topography

In the quest to make our cities more efficient, functional and sustainable there is a danger that the softer emotional aspects which can make cities so compelling become overlooked.

In the same way that mobile devices can measure our speed and efficiency, mobile devices can also measure our emotional responses to places  (Emotizer / Mappiness).

Once we can map the emotional topography of our cities what do we do with this information? How do we cultivate desirable areas? How do we convert unpleasant areas?

Week 1: Parametric architecture and participatory urbanism

A highlight of this week’s Passagen design festival in Cologne was a lecture by Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid architects on Parametric Architecture. Patrik argues that Parametric architecture is the ‘great new style after modernism’ – a fireworks display of splines, nurbs and subdivs leading to organic soft forms composed of variegated elements in a cohesive whole. While I love the forms and dynamic of the architecture the  idea of a superficial style makes me uncomfortable. The adoption of the ‘style of modernism’ led to countless inappropriate buildings which looked modern but failed the functional and societal needs of their occupants.

On closer examination there is evidence that Parametric architecure uses environmental stimuli to shape buildings -  sun paths, wind tunnel simulation and crowd modelling datasets can shape buildings’ forms to maximise natural light, control microclimates and improve circulation.   Parametric architecture becomes an organic construct shaped by a few DNA-like context specific variables.

What if the datasets generated from users could also be incorporated into the design of buildings and our urban environment as bottom-up open source urbanism? The paths created by desire-lines, the emotional cityness experienced by citizens, the fast changing needs of the populace? What forms would be created – buildings or less visible systems of experience?

Already I can see how these questions relate to the work of the studio in projects like Vector and Dollar. I suspect this mode of enquiry will continue to be a theme for the start of 2012.