This document discusses smart, creative placemaking and provides examples of projects that incorporate digital technologies into public spaces. It begins with a brief history of placemaking and defines creative placemaking as strategically shaping public spaces through arts and cultural activities. Examples are given of projects like interactive light installations, sensor-triggered sidewalk lights, and a subway platform "musical instrument." The document aims to explore how smart technologies can enhance placemaking and public experiences in cities.
The document discusses placemaking and citizen-led urban planning. It summarizes lessons learned from Northampton, Massachusetts about creating more inclusive public spaces through tactical urbanism and community engagement. Key lessons include that societal cohesion is important for cities, smaller localized plans can work better than top-down approaches, and governments need to listen to communities. The document proposes creating "Placemade" to transform Philippine cities into more livable, sustainable places through simplifying frameworks, inspiring local change, and collaborating with communities on projects like street paintings, gardens, and parklets.
Good urban design ensures positive interaction between public spaces and public life. Observation is the key tool for understanding how public spaces are used so they can be improved. Direct observation of users through counting, mapping activities, tracing movements, and photography can provide quantitative and qualitative data on how spaces are used and what changes may better serve the public. Questions like how many people use a space, who they are, where they go, what activities they engage in, and for how long help categorize this observational data to gain specific insights.
The city of theory, planning in the face of conflict, contested cities social...Desy Rosnita Sari
The document summarizes three articles about the history and evolution of urban planning. It discusses how the planning paradigm has shifted over time from a focus on design to incorporating more community engagement, data analysis, and consideration of social and political factors. Planners now take on roles as mediators and negotiators to manage conflicts between competing stakeholder groups given the imbalance of power in planning processes. Cities are understood not just as physical forms but as ongoing processes shaped by social, economic and political dynamics over time and place. The messy and political nature of planning challenges the profession to maintain relevance across diverse fields of study and practice.
The document analyzes the Burleigh Heads Stockland Mall in Queensland, Australia using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles of surveillance and legibility. Through on-site observation and public surveys, it finds that surveillance is well-implemented around the main shopping center but decreases further out due to lack of pedestrian activity, lighting, and visibility. Legibility is also good within the center but poorer at the edges with few landmarks and signs. Recommendations are made to improve safety and navigation throughout the site.
Dissertation_UrbanDesign_FINAL_LR_SecureAilsa Long
This document provides background information for a dissertation exploring how modern technology has impacted social dynamics in small urban public spaces. It discusses the motivation for studying this topic, influenced by William Whyte's prior research on physical features that promote social interaction. The dissertation will use mixed methods including on-site observation and questionnaires at a case study plaza in Virginia to analyze the role of physical, social, and virtual/technological features today. The goal is to provide guidance for designing small urban spaces that foster public social engagement in the digital age.
Cities like San Francisco need help - but conventional planning processes make it difficult to implement great ideas for civic improvement.
Urban Prototyping (UP) complements these processes by rapidly designing, testing, and scaling new projects that improve civic life.
UP takes projects from prototypes to city pilots to refined products.
UP Cities around the world design and test prototypes through large-scale public Festivals that engage local communities.
The first UP San Francisco Festival was held in October 2012 as a flagship event in San Francisco’s first Innovation Month. On October 20, 2012, six blocks of downtown San Francisco became a living laboratory for urban experiments.
The 2012 Festival featured:
5000+ visitors
23 urban prototypes
40+ audio, visual, and dance performers
25+ renowned speakers in design, art, and technology.
Original UP concept by Gray Area and Rebar.
http://urbanprototyping.org
http://twitter.com/urbanproto
http://facebook.com/urbanprototyping
Architecture & IA: Expanding the Metaphor - IA Summit 2016Jessica DuVerneay
This document discusses using physical architecture as a metaphor for information architecture (IA). It notes both strengths and limitations of this metaphor. It argues that current metaphors focus too narrowly on recent Western architecture and proposes expanding the metaphor to include traditional, natural, and indigenous architectures. It provides strategies for improving IA practice by considering sustainability, context, inclusion, and looking beyond individual projects. The document advocates for IA practitioners to help drive cultural and political change through more responsible design.
IRJET- Public Spaces and its Importance: A ReviewIRJET Journal
This document discusses the importance of public spaces. It begins by defining public spaces as areas that are accessible to people who may not know each other. Public spaces help define a city's character and are important for people's personal development as they reflect where people feel a sense of belonging. However, public spaces face challenges like crime, degradation, and ensuring safety. The document also examines how the design of public spaces, including elements like lighting, landscaping and zoning of activities, influences how the spaces are used. A case study found that public parks were used for activities like walking, relaxing and socializing. The analysis shows public spaces play an important role in health and social interaction, and governments should focus on creating more such spaces.
The document discusses placemaking and citizen-led urban planning. It summarizes lessons learned from Northampton, Massachusetts about creating more inclusive public spaces through tactical urbanism and community engagement. Key lessons include that societal cohesion is important for cities, smaller localized plans can work better than top-down approaches, and governments need to listen to communities. The document proposes creating "Placemade" to transform Philippine cities into more livable, sustainable places through simplifying frameworks, inspiring local change, and collaborating with communities on projects like street paintings, gardens, and parklets.
Good urban design ensures positive interaction between public spaces and public life. Observation is the key tool for understanding how public spaces are used so they can be improved. Direct observation of users through counting, mapping activities, tracing movements, and photography can provide quantitative and qualitative data on how spaces are used and what changes may better serve the public. Questions like how many people use a space, who they are, where they go, what activities they engage in, and for how long help categorize this observational data to gain specific insights.
The city of theory, planning in the face of conflict, contested cities social...Desy Rosnita Sari
The document summarizes three articles about the history and evolution of urban planning. It discusses how the planning paradigm has shifted over time from a focus on design to incorporating more community engagement, data analysis, and consideration of social and political factors. Planners now take on roles as mediators and negotiators to manage conflicts between competing stakeholder groups given the imbalance of power in planning processes. Cities are understood not just as physical forms but as ongoing processes shaped by social, economic and political dynamics over time and place. The messy and political nature of planning challenges the profession to maintain relevance across diverse fields of study and practice.
The document analyzes the Burleigh Heads Stockland Mall in Queensland, Australia using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles of surveillance and legibility. Through on-site observation and public surveys, it finds that surveillance is well-implemented around the main shopping center but decreases further out due to lack of pedestrian activity, lighting, and visibility. Legibility is also good within the center but poorer at the edges with few landmarks and signs. Recommendations are made to improve safety and navigation throughout the site.
Dissertation_UrbanDesign_FINAL_LR_SecureAilsa Long
This document provides background information for a dissertation exploring how modern technology has impacted social dynamics in small urban public spaces. It discusses the motivation for studying this topic, influenced by William Whyte's prior research on physical features that promote social interaction. The dissertation will use mixed methods including on-site observation and questionnaires at a case study plaza in Virginia to analyze the role of physical, social, and virtual/technological features today. The goal is to provide guidance for designing small urban spaces that foster public social engagement in the digital age.
Cities like San Francisco need help - but conventional planning processes make it difficult to implement great ideas for civic improvement.
Urban Prototyping (UP) complements these processes by rapidly designing, testing, and scaling new projects that improve civic life.
UP takes projects from prototypes to city pilots to refined products.
UP Cities around the world design and test prototypes through large-scale public Festivals that engage local communities.
The first UP San Francisco Festival was held in October 2012 as a flagship event in San Francisco’s first Innovation Month. On October 20, 2012, six blocks of downtown San Francisco became a living laboratory for urban experiments.
The 2012 Festival featured:
5000+ visitors
23 urban prototypes
40+ audio, visual, and dance performers
25+ renowned speakers in design, art, and technology.
Original UP concept by Gray Area and Rebar.
http://urbanprototyping.org
http://twitter.com/urbanproto
http://facebook.com/urbanprototyping
Architecture & IA: Expanding the Metaphor - IA Summit 2016Jessica DuVerneay
This document discusses using physical architecture as a metaphor for information architecture (IA). It notes both strengths and limitations of this metaphor. It argues that current metaphors focus too narrowly on recent Western architecture and proposes expanding the metaphor to include traditional, natural, and indigenous architectures. It provides strategies for improving IA practice by considering sustainability, context, inclusion, and looking beyond individual projects. The document advocates for IA practitioners to help drive cultural and political change through more responsible design.
IRJET- Public Spaces and its Importance: A ReviewIRJET Journal
This document discusses the importance of public spaces. It begins by defining public spaces as areas that are accessible to people who may not know each other. Public spaces help define a city's character and are important for people's personal development as they reflect where people feel a sense of belonging. However, public spaces face challenges like crime, degradation, and ensuring safety. The document also examines how the design of public spaces, including elements like lighting, landscaping and zoning of activities, influences how the spaces are used. A case study found that public parks were used for activities like walking, relaxing and socializing. The analysis shows public spaces play an important role in health and social interaction, and governments should focus on creating more such spaces.
This document discusses the importance of designing cities and spaces with human needs in mind. It argues that many public spaces in cities, like plazas and streets, are designed without considering human scale or how people will use and interact in those spaces. As a result, people create their own informal spaces that better meet their needs. However, some cities are now trying to address this issue by redesigning streets and public spaces to prioritize pedestrians over vehicles and include seating, greenery, and other amenities that encourage human use and interaction. The document examines how "human space" is about more than just the physical dimensions and can include social and community aspects as well.
1) Design has traditionally focused on giving form to industrial, consumer, and information economies within a globalized system. However, this has not addressed broader societal and environmental concerns.
2) There is a need for a new vision of beauty that is unusual, intriguing, appeals to curiosity, and serves to heal societal divides, while being adaptable to the future.
3) Design needs to take a more activist role on behalf of societies and the environment, focusing on building social capital and improving well-being rather than just serving economic interests.
Following the 2008 "Re-imaging Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil symposium, Penn IUR solicited manuscripts on environmental and energy challenges and their effect on the redesign of urban environments.
Urban design considerations aim to provide guidance for designers to create buildings and public spaces that are easy to navigate, stimulate public activity, and support various uses. Key factors include spatial patterns, street networks, how space is used, and balancing consistency with variety in the urban environment. The goal of urban design is to create places that can be enjoyed by diverse people now and in the future.
Urban design criteria the holistic approach for design assessmentNik Latogan
The lecture discusses key concepts and principles of urban design. It emphasizes taking a holistic approach that considers various factors such as the people, laws and regulations, activities, time, transportation, physical environment, politics, accessibility, resources, design plans, and space. The lecture also stresses the importance of understanding user needs and involving stakeholders in the design process. It provides guidelines for assessing urban design projects based on established criteria and benchmarks.
The document discusses trends that are changing the concept of public space and public life. Specifically, it notes three key trends: 1) the withering of the public realm due to market liberalism and reduced government services, 2) tensions arising from global economic restructuring and corporate power, and 3) rapid technological changes transforming concepts of place and community. It explores how these trends are giving rise to privatized and controlled spaces like corporate plazas, shopping malls, and gated communities that replace traditional public spaces.
Let’s Chalk is a proposed interactive art installation and mobile app that allows people in different cities to draw on a shared digital sidewalk. The project was inspired by public art installations, collaborative art projects, and seeing people interact across distances. Early tests found that a camera and projector could share drawings, but the surface would need shade and to be painted white. Interviews informed the design details. The mobile app would let users see shared drawings and chat, while the website archives past drawings and promotes future connections between cities. Usability testing improved the app interfaces.
Let’s Chalk is a proposed interactive art installation and mobile app that allows people in different cities to draw on a shared digital sidewalk. The project was inspired by public art installations, collaborative art projects, and seeing people interact across distances. Early tests found that a camera and projector could share drawings, but the surface would need shade and to be painted white. Interviews informed the design details. The mobile app would let users see shared drawings and chat, while the website archives past drawings and promotes future connections between cities. Usability testing improved the app interfaces.
This document is Neda Mohsenian-Rad's resume summarizing her education and experience. She has a Master of Community Planning degree from the University of Cincinnati with a specialization in Urban Design and Physical Planning. She also has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. Her experience includes architecture internships, research assistantships, teaching assistant roles, and winning awards for her thesis and design competitions. She has skills in design software, graphics, and GIS. Samples of her work include residential complex designs in Iran, an urban design plan for New Orleans, and a green infrastructure improvement plan for Cincinnati.
This document provides an overview of theories and ideas that have shaped cities from a planner's perspective. It begins with an introduction on the interdisciplinary nature of planning and then divides the rest of the document into sections on historic planning theory, modern planning ideas, transportation demand theory, and further resources. Some of the key theories and ideas discussed include Jane Jacobs' approach to cities as ecosystems, Kevin Lynch's theory of legibility and imageability, the City Beautiful movement, regional planning, urban renewal, and transportation planning concepts.
Following the 2008 "Re-imaging Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil symposium, Penn IUR solicited manuscripts on environmental and energy challenges and their effect on the redesign of urban environments.
This document provides an introduction to the lecture on urban design. It discusses the role, importance and scope of urban design in relation to architecture and urban planning. Urban design is concerned with shaping and designing public spaces in cities and towns, from the scale of streets and squares down to individual buildings. It aims to create places that are good to live in, attractive to visit, and socially and economically successful.
Landscape urbanism is an approach to urban planning that focuses on designing the landscape of a city rather than its individual buildings. It views the landscape as shaping and organizing the spaces and relationships within a city. Some key aspects of landscape urbanism include an emphasis on horizontal design and open spaces over vertical structures, an approach that allows for flexibility and change over time, and a view of the landscape as interconnecting different urban systems. While landscape urbanism promotes integrating nature and ecology into urban planning, some critics argue it can result in a lack of density and disconnected green spaces, or treat ecology simply as an aesthetic element rather than necessary infrastructure.
Urban design (the functional dimension of designing an urban area)UzmaAbid5
Movement is fundamental to how urban places function. It relates to encouraging people to stop and spend time in public spaces, which generates life and activity. There are two types of movement - vehicular and pedestrian. Pedestrian movement is important as it allows for optional activities beyond basic travel. Space syntax theory explores how urban grid configuration and connectivity relates to pedestrian movement and densities. Well-connected places encourage more pedestrian movement and support a variety of land uses.
The document compares Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism from a social practices perspective to determine which leads to greener behavior. It analyzes how each approach impacts 7 social practices: travel, food consumption, leisure, shopping, work, gardening, and social contacts. Landscape Urbanism encourages more sustainable practices like gardening but promotes car-dependent lifestyles. New Urbanism advocates higher density and mixed-use development that reduces travel needs and encourages walking/biking, but provides less space for gardening. Overall, New Urbanism appears better equipped to influence behaviors in a green direction by making sustainable options more convenient and accessible.
Definitions of Urban Planning, Urban Design & ArchitectureIbtehal Ammar
Urban Planning, Urban Design & Architecture definitions with examples in Tripoli city
“I’m trying to discover – invent, I suppose an architecture, and forms of urban planning, that do something of the same things in a contemporary way. I started out of trying to create buildings that would sparkle like isolated jewels; now I want them to connect, to form a new kind of landscape, to flow together with contemporary cities and the lives of their peoples”
by ZAHA HADID
Kevyn introduced a concept of planning that was the base for understanding and visualising The Planning Aspects; important for the budding planners.
The presentation initiates the same understanding and invokes a means for better understanding of 'Planning'.
EUDT - European urban design theory - spring 2013Henning Thomsen
This document provides an overview of the course "European Urban Design Theories" being offered in the spring 2013 semester. The course will examine contemporary urban design theories and practices in Europe through lectures, discussions, readings, and field studies in Copenhagen. Key topics that will be covered include the ambiguities of urban design as a field, concepts of the city from historical and cultural perspectives, and how theoretical positions relate to practical urban design approaches with a focus on placemaking. Students will complete assignments such as a midterm exam, field study documentation, and a group poster presentation analyzing an overlooked urban space to demonstrate their understanding of course concepts and critical thinking.
This document introduces Better, a mobile and customizable networking tool designed to help community organizers more effectively connect people and foster meaningful relationships. It summarizes Better's key features for building teams and profiles, creating filters to match members, communicating with groups, promoting events, and capturing community activity. The goal of Better is to transform passive social media followers into an engaged coalition by facilitating collaboration around shared goals and resources.
The Music Building is a community space in Times Square that offers recording and rehearsal studios to musicians. It is seeking local business partnerships to sponsor events that will generate exposure for both organizations. As a hub for the local music scene with hundreds of engaged artists and fans on social media, the Music Building can promote partner businesses through branded events, materials in its space, and social media posts to its audience of over 100,000 followers. Potential partnership opportunities include sponsoring food, drinks or experiences at the Building's monthly events.
This document summarizes a workshop for artists about digital engagement. The workshop aims to introduce artists to each other, discuss how fan engagement has changed with new technologies, and explore strategies for off-stage engagement through discussion topics like social media use, recruiting new fans, and meeting with current fans. The workshop structure includes introductions, a presentation on how consumption habits have changed, a group discussion on various engagement topics, and a meet and greet with a band.
This document discusses the importance of designing cities and spaces with human needs in mind. It argues that many public spaces in cities, like plazas and streets, are designed without considering human scale or how people will use and interact in those spaces. As a result, people create their own informal spaces that better meet their needs. However, some cities are now trying to address this issue by redesigning streets and public spaces to prioritize pedestrians over vehicles and include seating, greenery, and other amenities that encourage human use and interaction. The document examines how "human space" is about more than just the physical dimensions and can include social and community aspects as well.
1) Design has traditionally focused on giving form to industrial, consumer, and information economies within a globalized system. However, this has not addressed broader societal and environmental concerns.
2) There is a need for a new vision of beauty that is unusual, intriguing, appeals to curiosity, and serves to heal societal divides, while being adaptable to the future.
3) Design needs to take a more activist role on behalf of societies and the environment, focusing on building social capital and improving well-being rather than just serving economic interests.
Following the 2008 "Re-imaging Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil symposium, Penn IUR solicited manuscripts on environmental and energy challenges and their effect on the redesign of urban environments.
Urban design considerations aim to provide guidance for designers to create buildings and public spaces that are easy to navigate, stimulate public activity, and support various uses. Key factors include spatial patterns, street networks, how space is used, and balancing consistency with variety in the urban environment. The goal of urban design is to create places that can be enjoyed by diverse people now and in the future.
Urban design criteria the holistic approach for design assessmentNik Latogan
The lecture discusses key concepts and principles of urban design. It emphasizes taking a holistic approach that considers various factors such as the people, laws and regulations, activities, time, transportation, physical environment, politics, accessibility, resources, design plans, and space. The lecture also stresses the importance of understanding user needs and involving stakeholders in the design process. It provides guidelines for assessing urban design projects based on established criteria and benchmarks.
The document discusses trends that are changing the concept of public space and public life. Specifically, it notes three key trends: 1) the withering of the public realm due to market liberalism and reduced government services, 2) tensions arising from global economic restructuring and corporate power, and 3) rapid technological changes transforming concepts of place and community. It explores how these trends are giving rise to privatized and controlled spaces like corporate plazas, shopping malls, and gated communities that replace traditional public spaces.
Let’s Chalk is a proposed interactive art installation and mobile app that allows people in different cities to draw on a shared digital sidewalk. The project was inspired by public art installations, collaborative art projects, and seeing people interact across distances. Early tests found that a camera and projector could share drawings, but the surface would need shade and to be painted white. Interviews informed the design details. The mobile app would let users see shared drawings and chat, while the website archives past drawings and promotes future connections between cities. Usability testing improved the app interfaces.
Let’s Chalk is a proposed interactive art installation and mobile app that allows people in different cities to draw on a shared digital sidewalk. The project was inspired by public art installations, collaborative art projects, and seeing people interact across distances. Early tests found that a camera and projector could share drawings, but the surface would need shade and to be painted white. Interviews informed the design details. The mobile app would let users see shared drawings and chat, while the website archives past drawings and promotes future connections between cities. Usability testing improved the app interfaces.
This document is Neda Mohsenian-Rad's resume summarizing her education and experience. She has a Master of Community Planning degree from the University of Cincinnati with a specialization in Urban Design and Physical Planning. She also has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. Her experience includes architecture internships, research assistantships, teaching assistant roles, and winning awards for her thesis and design competitions. She has skills in design software, graphics, and GIS. Samples of her work include residential complex designs in Iran, an urban design plan for New Orleans, and a green infrastructure improvement plan for Cincinnati.
This document provides an overview of theories and ideas that have shaped cities from a planner's perspective. It begins with an introduction on the interdisciplinary nature of planning and then divides the rest of the document into sections on historic planning theory, modern planning ideas, transportation demand theory, and further resources. Some of the key theories and ideas discussed include Jane Jacobs' approach to cities as ecosystems, Kevin Lynch's theory of legibility and imageability, the City Beautiful movement, regional planning, urban renewal, and transportation planning concepts.
Following the 2008 "Re-imaging Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil symposium, Penn IUR solicited manuscripts on environmental and energy challenges and their effect on the redesign of urban environments.
This document provides an introduction to the lecture on urban design. It discusses the role, importance and scope of urban design in relation to architecture and urban planning. Urban design is concerned with shaping and designing public spaces in cities and towns, from the scale of streets and squares down to individual buildings. It aims to create places that are good to live in, attractive to visit, and socially and economically successful.
Landscape urbanism is an approach to urban planning that focuses on designing the landscape of a city rather than its individual buildings. It views the landscape as shaping and organizing the spaces and relationships within a city. Some key aspects of landscape urbanism include an emphasis on horizontal design and open spaces over vertical structures, an approach that allows for flexibility and change over time, and a view of the landscape as interconnecting different urban systems. While landscape urbanism promotes integrating nature and ecology into urban planning, some critics argue it can result in a lack of density and disconnected green spaces, or treat ecology simply as an aesthetic element rather than necessary infrastructure.
Urban design (the functional dimension of designing an urban area)UzmaAbid5
Movement is fundamental to how urban places function. It relates to encouraging people to stop and spend time in public spaces, which generates life and activity. There are two types of movement - vehicular and pedestrian. Pedestrian movement is important as it allows for optional activities beyond basic travel. Space syntax theory explores how urban grid configuration and connectivity relates to pedestrian movement and densities. Well-connected places encourage more pedestrian movement and support a variety of land uses.
The document compares Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism from a social practices perspective to determine which leads to greener behavior. It analyzes how each approach impacts 7 social practices: travel, food consumption, leisure, shopping, work, gardening, and social contacts. Landscape Urbanism encourages more sustainable practices like gardening but promotes car-dependent lifestyles. New Urbanism advocates higher density and mixed-use development that reduces travel needs and encourages walking/biking, but provides less space for gardening. Overall, New Urbanism appears better equipped to influence behaviors in a green direction by making sustainable options more convenient and accessible.
Definitions of Urban Planning, Urban Design & ArchitectureIbtehal Ammar
Urban Planning, Urban Design & Architecture definitions with examples in Tripoli city
“I’m trying to discover – invent, I suppose an architecture, and forms of urban planning, that do something of the same things in a contemporary way. I started out of trying to create buildings that would sparkle like isolated jewels; now I want them to connect, to form a new kind of landscape, to flow together with contemporary cities and the lives of their peoples”
by ZAHA HADID
Kevyn introduced a concept of planning that was the base for understanding and visualising The Planning Aspects; important for the budding planners.
The presentation initiates the same understanding and invokes a means for better understanding of 'Planning'.
EUDT - European urban design theory - spring 2013Henning Thomsen
This document provides an overview of the course "European Urban Design Theories" being offered in the spring 2013 semester. The course will examine contemporary urban design theories and practices in Europe through lectures, discussions, readings, and field studies in Copenhagen. Key topics that will be covered include the ambiguities of urban design as a field, concepts of the city from historical and cultural perspectives, and how theoretical positions relate to practical urban design approaches with a focus on placemaking. Students will complete assignments such as a midterm exam, field study documentation, and a group poster presentation analyzing an overlooked urban space to demonstrate their understanding of course concepts and critical thinking.
This document introduces Better, a mobile and customizable networking tool designed to help community organizers more effectively connect people and foster meaningful relationships. It summarizes Better's key features for building teams and profiles, creating filters to match members, communicating with groups, promoting events, and capturing community activity. The goal of Better is to transform passive social media followers into an engaged coalition by facilitating collaboration around shared goals and resources.
The Music Building is a community space in Times Square that offers recording and rehearsal studios to musicians. It is seeking local business partnerships to sponsor events that will generate exposure for both organizations. As a hub for the local music scene with hundreds of engaged artists and fans on social media, the Music Building can promote partner businesses through branded events, materials in its space, and social media posts to its audience of over 100,000 followers. Potential partnership opportunities include sponsoring food, drinks or experiences at the Building's monthly events.
This document summarizes a workshop for artists about digital engagement. The workshop aims to introduce artists to each other, discuss how fan engagement has changed with new technologies, and explore strategies for off-stage engagement through discussion topics like social media use, recruiting new fans, and meeting with current fans. The workshop structure includes introductions, a presentation on how consumption habits have changed, a group discussion on various engagement topics, and a meet and greet with a band.
Times Square Arts Initiatives by Sherry DobbinRuhi Shamim
On March 12, 2014 we hosted Sherry Dobbin, Director of Public Arts at Times Square Arts at The Music Building. Here is the presentation she shared with us
ArtistEngage Presentation 2: The Power Vision Ruhi Shamim
#ArtistEngage is a workshop series that Educates Artists through collaborative dialogue in order to encourage participation, action and evolution in our creative community. ...
Agora Collective: Design concepts for community livingRuhi Shamim
This document provides an analysis and conceptual design for a proposed hotel at the 181 AGORA NEUKÖLLN site in Berlin. It includes studies of spatial requirements, site potential, modularity, user groups, and a proposed functional organization. Diagrams show a concept based on permaculture principles with common areas like a rooftop garden connected vertically. A ground floor plan proposes arrangements for the existing basement, including an outdoor theater, event space, and workshop areas.
The presentation is about Classification and Reclassification of Hotels, HRACC, 2014. It will be a base for designing of Hotels In India,Hope it helps mainly students of Architecture
This section profiles 26 asphalt art projects from around the world. It highlights three intersection mural projects:
1. The Green Lake Dragonfly mural in Seattle, which was community-designed and installed through volunteer labor. Its success was due to strong team cooperation among community members.
2. Common Ground in St. Petersburg, Florida, the city's first intersection mural. It helped bring politicians and community together and was funded through a city arts grant.
3. Walks of Life in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the city partnered with a local arts school. Students designed the mural and it was installed through volunteer labor. Its success was due to interdepartmental collaboration across the
Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. (Wikipedia)
• The development and planning of cities and towns
• It can also be understood as placemaking and the creation of place identity at a citywide level.
• It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning (the physical design and management of urban structures) and urban sociology (the study of urban life and culture).
• characteristic of cities and towns
This document summarizes case studies of successful placemaking projects in San Diego and recommends how the city can better support such projects. It describes three case studies: Linda Vista's Linda Placita project which created an outdoor gathering space; Encanto's Chollas Creek Crossing project which transformed a vacant lot into a community space; and Pacific Beach's intersection mural project. It recommends the city create a new permit process, pilot projects, partner with artists, and support local arts organizations to encourage more community-led placemaking initiatives.
The Map the Square project was an interactive art installation and digital mapping project that invited the public to provide input on how to improve the built environment in Pioneer Square, Seattle. Over 200 tags were placed by the public at 8 kiosks and 3 parking day stalls to identify locations needing change. The tags and photos were added to an online map to create a permanent record of public input to guide future development in the neighborhood.
From park bench to satellite: designing from the ground upegoodman
Talk for IDSA 2011, in New Orleans.
Often the most exciting opportunities are ones that we make for ourselves. By engaging with the people and places around us, we can reimagine the possibilities for social interaction in the everyday. Surveying diverse models for making and remaking urban green spaces, this talk will present tactics for working with cities, neighborhoods and communities to inspire, inform and instruct the design process from the ground up. Along the way we will explore the unique challenges that designers encounter when addressing urban issues as well as groups of individuals.
This document summarizes the history of Baton Rouge and the development of the Mid City area. It traces Baton Rouge from its discovery by French explorers in 1699 through periods of French, English, and Spanish rule. It became the capital of Louisiana in 1849. Mid City developed in the early 20th century but declined after highways were built in the 1950/60s that severed it from downtown. The LSU Mid City studio focused on temporary interventions and construction projects in Mid City to engage students and address issues in the area.
Kyoorius Design Magazine 25 – A Post-event Essay on Z-Axis 2014Anusha Narayanan
Architecture is a discipline, which lies in this grey zone between design and science, art and utility, physical and cultural i.e. tangible and intangible. Of how much consequence is it as a practice to the urban fabric? After the Z-Axis Conference of 2015, this was a post-event essay I wrote for Kyoorius Magazine.
Cultural Urbanism - Planning Mag April 2014 SCREEN RESUta Birkmayer
This document discusses the importance of cultural urbanism in city planning and design. It argues that understanding and celebrating local culture is critical to creating authentic places that appeal to local communities. The document examines examples like City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, which incorporated local cultural elements like a stream facsimile. It emphasizes that copying attributes from other places will not resonate long-term and that the best approach is to identify and enhance a place's unique regional characteristics and qualities of the local people and environment.
2019 arch eg 150 cairo - human scale- in public spaces-presentationAhmed H.Radwan
The document analyzes factors that contribute to a human scale in public spaces. It discusses how modern cities have become more vehicle-oriented and lack human scale with large buildings and public spaces. The research examines public spaces in New Cairo settlements to identify factors that can positively lead to a human scale. These factors include pedestrian flow, attractions for people, diversity of uses and users, greenery, street furniture, and a sense of safety, belonging and livability. The study analyzes different public spaces in New Cairo and provides recommendations for achieving a human scale in existing and new urban spaces through activities, natural elements, street furniture, and building design.
The document discusses the concept of urban green infrastructure. It defines urban green infrastructure as the parts of a city that contribute to natural processes like keeping water and air clean and recycling waste. This includes parks, stream corridors, utility corridors, and vacant lands. These green spaces, if viewed as a single interconnected system, can help keep cities clean and provide recreational areas. The green infrastructure works with engineered systems to manage resources like energy, waste, and stormwater runoff in a balanced way, analogous to natural ecological processes.
This portofolio of work, demonstrates the process behind my architectural thesis project. It focuses on the conditions behind my written thesis as well as the development of an interactive wall prototype through material investigations.
Placemaking is a way to make your community a better place to live and work by transforming public spaces into vibrant community places. As a place becomes more desirable and welcoming, properties around that place increase in value.
Tactical Urbanism, Lecture by Arvind Ramachandran, 7 July 2013Sochi - peshkom
Arvind Ramachandran introduces the concept of "Everyday Urbanism" which encourages building cities incrementally through small-scale citizen-driven projects rather than large master plans. Everyday Urbanism recognizes cities as complex entities shaped by many forces and argues a bottom-up approach improves city life without massive investment. Examples of Everyday Urbanism projects include parklets in LA, a participatory park in Copenhagen, and public toilets designed with citizen input in Chennai.
Case Law Analysis - Intellectual PropertyIn this unit, you will .docxcowinhelen
This document provides guidance for a case law analysis assignment on intellectual property. It outlines the purpose of the assignment, which is to have students read and analyze a real court decision on intellectual property law. Students are instructed to summarize the key details of the case, including the parties involved, background, specific legal disagreement, and the court's ruling. They are also asked to evaluate concepts like dissenting opinions and whether they agree with the decision. The analysis should be no more than two pages and follow APA style guidelines.
This document outlines the Amplifying Creative Communities project in New York City led by the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Lab at The New School. The project aims to retain the traditional population in the Lower East Side neighborhood facing gentrification by stimulating local job creation and amplifying creative communities. It will map social innovation cases, co-design a toolkit for local organizations, and support two local projects - Green Oasis Garden and The Lower East Side Girls Club. The toolkit will include tools to observe, communicate, start up, engage, and synergize community efforts.
This document outlines the Amplifying Creative Communities project in New York City led by the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Lab at The New School. The project aims to retain the traditional population in the Lower East Side neighborhood facing gentrification by stimulating local job creation and amplifying creative communities. It will map social innovation cases, co-design a toolkit for local organizations, and support two local projects - Green Oasis Garden and The Lower East Side Girls Club. The toolkit will include tools to observe, communicate, start up, engage, and synergize community efforts.
This document is Trey Meyer's architectural portfolio showcasing projects from his educational studies and professional experience, demonstrating his development of both manual and digital design skills over 4.5 years. The portfolio includes residential, commercial, and urban design projects addressing topics like cultural integration, adaptive reuse, parametric design, and sustainable transportation. It also provides information on Trey's education and professional experience in architecture.
Urban Acupuncture in Large Cities: Filtering
Framework to Select Sensitive Urban Spots in
Riyadh for Effective Urban Renewal
* Dr. Usama A. Nassar
Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
College of Engineering, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia Email: usama.a.nassar@gmail.com
ARTICLE INFO:
Article History:
Received 25 April 2020 Accepted 7 June 2020 Available online 18 June 2020
Keywords:
Urban Acupuncture; Riyadh;
Sensitive Spot;
Urban Renewal; Human-centered Spaces.
ABSTRACT
New revitalization and regeneration strategies are currently taking place as a scheme for reassessing urban spaces. This paper, as a result, navigates the theory of Urban Acupuncture (UA) as a quick and effective tool that can be adopted in large cities. Using Riyadh city as a case study, it discusses how this tool can be used to achieve maximum results with minimal effort in the most critical places. Riyadh city is the capital of Saudi Arabia and is considered one of the fastest-growing metropolitan cities in the Arab world. Through time, it has transformed into a city with leftover open spaces and an ever-increasing population. The study commences by exploring the term UA and its principles and similarly presents some of its successful international examples. It thereafter delves into the past and current situation in the city to show some of the challenges it faces. The study aims to develop a filtering framework for selecting a suitable sensitive spot that can be used to apply the concept of UA. A conclusion is made that as a small-scale space approach and a progressive concentrated urban renewal strategy.
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2021), 5(1), 1-18.
Digital Master Planning: Can we bring Smart Cities back to Earth? by Anthony ...Gigabit City Summit
Digital Master Planning: Can we bring Smart Cities back to Earth? was presented by Anthony Townsend, founder of Bits and Atoms, at the 2017 Gigabit City Summit.
This document summarizes space syntax, which analyzes how spatial configurations influence human behavior. It discusses space syntax's history and definitions, applications in fields like criminology and architecture, and analysis techniques like syntactic maps and measures of integration. Case studies on Margate, Jeddah, and Beijing show how space syntax was used to address issues like economic regeneration, unplanned urban areas, and sustainable development.
Similar to 14130122580737650178arupuni_smartcities_daverife_smartplacemaking (20)
1. Arup University – Smart Cities
Smart, Creative Placemaking
Dave Rife
May 23, 2014
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Ove Arup & Partners P.C.
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Contents
Page
1 Introduction 1
2 Placemaking 1
2.1 An Abbreviated History 1
2.2 Smart, Creative Placemaking 3
2.3 Examples of Smart, Creative Placemaking 5
2.4 Economic Case Studies 8
3 Conclusion 11
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1 Introduction
Oh hi! - thanks for stopping by and opening up this document. We’re going to
explore the role of digital technologies in creative placemaking within cities, with
particular geographical emphasis given to New York City. This paper is meant to
act as a summary of how smart technologies and creative placemaking exist in the
context of urban planning and design of the built environment, and it’s also meant
to be a reference of projects and practitioners currently working in this field (as of
May 2014). The hope is it also acts as a go-to reference for those interested in the
world of art, technology, and design for public spaces within cities.
We’ll start with defining what we mean by ‘placemaking,’ and run through a brief
history of placemaking as a design discipline. We’ll explore examples of how
digital technologies have been used to create experiences in cities that support the
goals of creative placemaking, and then we’ll then look more in depth at three
case studies of projects that have married digital technologies and placemaking,
each project with its own flavor of logistics, economics, and design strategies.
Finally, based on the examples given here, we’ll wrap up with a summary of the
role that digital technologies play in placemaking for cities of the future, and
touch on the skills and knowledge necessary to be a player in this new area of
expertise in design.
The following questions will be explored in order to determine the role of digital
technologies in placemaking within cities:
• What is creative placemaking?
• What does creative placemaking look like in the modern, technological age?
• Who are the people creating these experiences? What hardware is used to
create these experiences?
• Who pays for these projects?
2 Placemaking
In order to look to the future of technology’s role in the design of public spaces in
cities, let’s take a look back at where many believe the placemaking movement
began in the United States.
2.1 An Abbreviated History
It would be absurd to state that the conscious thought of placemaking began in the
20th
century. It didn’t, as evidenced by well-known public spaces of cities long
ago (ie, public markets, the city forum, etc). However, for the purposes of this
paper, we will explore the formal study of human centered design and
placemaking in the context of a post-World War II, industrialized and
suburbanized United States, where people like Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte
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were responding to top-down, public planning policies and design theories that
were a by-product of suburban sprawl and the popularity of the automobile.
Jane Jacobs was involved in a famous standoff against New York City Parks
Commissioner Robert Moses over the clearing of communities in Greenwich
Village to make way for the growing needs of automobile infrastructure. She led
multiple grassroots movements that eventually reversed Moses’ and other’s plans
to clear what the Commission described as areas of blight, which were to be
demolished and redeveloped. Jacobs opposed the New York City government, and
rallied the community around her to undertake their own study of the
neighborhood, which led to local newspapers doing the same, and eventually
overturned the Commission’s accusations of blight. Washington Square Park, a
large, car-free public space popular with musicians, chess players, and fountain-
goers, was saved from having a highway built through it (Silberberg et al, 2013).
As a result of her interactions with the Parks Commission, Jacobs went on to
publish The Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961, stating, ‘there is a
quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is
the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the
real order that is struggling to exist and to be served’ (Jacobs 1993: p.21)
William H. Whyte made a name for himself in a different way, after meticulously
gathering data about the way people approach, visit, and inhabit public space via
capturing and reviewing time lapse photography of various New York City public
spaces. He and his team of researchers, called the Street Life Project, rated
whether or not public spaces were ‘good’ based on observing the behavior of
people within them (Silberberg et al, 2013). Whyte published The Social Life of
Small Urban Spaces, summarizing his findings of the data he and his team
collected. A few of those findings include,
‘A good plaza starts at the street corner. If it’s a busy corner, it has a brisk
social life of its own. People will not just be waiting there for the light to
change. Some will be fixed in conversation; others in some phase of a
prolonged goodbye. If there’s a vendor at the corner, people will cluster
around him, and there will be considerable two-way traffic back and forth
between plaza and corner.’ (Whyte 1980: p.54)
‘Watch these flows and you will appreciate how very important steps can
be. The steps at Paley are so low and easy that one is almost pulled to
them. They add a nice ambiguity to your movement. You can stand and
watch, move up a foot, another, and, then, without having made a
conscious decision, find yourself in the park.’ (Whyte 1980: p.57)
‘Musicians and entertainers draw people together…it is not the excellence
of the act that is important. It is the fact that it is there that bonds people,
and sometimes a really bad act will work even better than a good one.’
(Whyte 1980: p.96)
As the 70s passed, the movement of bottom-up placemaking was being explored
by urban planners and architects alike. Projects for Public Spaces emerged as a
formal entity created in 1975 by Fred Kent (a former researcher of Whyte’s). The
organization is still in business, currently describing itself as a ‘central hub of the
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global Placemaking movement, connecting people to ideas, expertise, and partners
who share a passion for creating vital places. [pps.org, 2014.].
In 1977, Alexander et al published A Pattern Language, focused on human
centered, bottom-up design. The book, meant to be paired with their previous
works, The Timeless Way of Building and The Oregon Experiment, is comprised
of a set of 253 ‘patterns,’ which are solutions to common problems in the built
environment. The reader is encouraged to stitch together a suggested series of
patterns to most humanely create the type of space in question. The authors write,
‘You can use it (this book) to design a house for yourself, with your
family; or to work with other people to design an office or a workshop or a
public building like a school. And you can use it to guide you in the actual
process of construction.’ (Alexander, Ishikawa and Silverstein, 1977: p.x)
‘At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for
themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be
radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession)
but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places
of the world were not made by architects but by the people. (Alexander,
1975, p.206)
Fast forward to the present day, and you have the United States’ first master’s
program in Urban Placemaking and Management, launched by Pratt Institute.
David Burney, one of the creators of the program who served as New York City’s
Department of Design and Construction Commissioner from 2004-2012, said in
an interview with Projects for Public Spaces,
‘In the past 10-15 years there’s been a real paradigm shift in thinking
about planning and urban design, from what used to be a principal focus
on buildings to more of a focus on the spaces between buildings. Rather
than allowing these places to be formed as a sort of afterthought of
building design, Placemaking approaches public space from a people
perspective. So the idea is that the program incorporates a whole variety of
professional and technical skills - including community building,
economics, sustainable design, management, urban design and landscape -
because Placemakers need to understand the role that each of these
disciplines plays in creating, designing, and then maintaining successful
public spaces.’ (Bradley, 2013)
2.2 Smart, Creative Placemaking
Phew! Now that you’ve got some context, let’s formally define creative
placemaking to set the tone for the rest of the paper. This definition is offered up
by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and
Planning, who included it in their 2010 white paper titled Creative Placemaking,
written for the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United
States Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation:
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In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, non-profit, and
community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of
a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities.
Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates
structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public
safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be
inspired. (Markusen and Gadwa, 2010: p.3)
Markusen and Gadwa also argue that successful placemaking has been shown to
lead to higher quality of life, increased jobs, and larger incomes in cities across
the United States.
If we take Barcelona as an example of a modern, smart city - the city that won the
2014 European Capital of Innovation prize given by the European Commission
for ‘introducing the use of new technologies to bring the city closer to its citizens’
(Eu-smartcities.eu, 2014), the definition above describes a process that fits well
with the goals of Barcelona - namely, to ‘build a livable city, [and] increase public
space for people.’ (Lopez, 2014: slide 15)
As digital technologies become faster, smaller, more efficient, and cheaper, we
see them more and more in our daily lives. Smart phones are a clear example:
61% of Americans are reported to own a smart phone as of June 2013, which is a
10% increase from the previous year (Nielsen.com, 2014). Similarly, digital
sensors, microcontrollers, and software to control them are becoming increasingly
affordable and accessible to the general public (Adafruit.com, 2014).
It makes sense that these digital technologies have been and will continue to play
a role in the design of the built environment and creative placemaking. Next, we’ll
explore a number of project examples that have incorporated smart technologies
in the design of public environments and experiences.
Problem, Solution, and Payoffs of Effective Placemaking (Markusen and Gadwa, 2010:
p.3)
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2.3 Examples of Smart, Creative Placemaking
Here, you will find a table of public creative placemaking projects that include
smart, digital technologies as part of their design. If you’re reading this on a
digital display and have internet access (most likely you are), each project name
and designer tab is linked to more information on the web. Projects marked with a
* are those that have not been experienced first-hand by the author.
Project Location Designer Description
21
Balancoires*
Montreal Daily Tous
Les Jours
21 Balançoires (21 Swings) is a giant collective instrument, a
game where together we achieve better things than
individually. The result is a giant collective instrument
that stimulates ownership of the space, bringing together
people of all ages and backgrounds, and creating a place for
playing and hanging out in the middle of the city center
(Dailytouslesjours.com, 2014).
Silent Lights New York
City
Urban
Matter Inc,
Studio
Indefinit,
Brett Burton
Silent Lights takes the Expressway’s ever-present traffic
noise and makes it visible, illuminating the gloomy,
clamorous underpass with a pathway of peaceful lighted
gates. The lights respond to the sounds above them, lighting
up sequentially as vehicles pass overhead. The hum of the
traffic thus becomes a tangible, reactive presence rather than
a hidden aggravation, and passersby can walk beneath the
multicolored gates to experience a moment of respite from
the constant noise. The installation also acts as a way-finding
element, making the inconspicuous pedestrian pathway more
visible and engaging. (Urban Matter Inc, 2014)
Under Armour
LED Sidewalk
New York
City
James
DeVito,
George
Michael
Brower
Interactive installation, embedding LEDs and IR sensors
under existing glass blocks under the sidewalk in front of
Under Armour’s storefront in Soho. As people pass by along
the store, their presence triggers the IR sensors and the glass
illuminates in real time under their feet. (DeVito, 2014)
Reach: NYC New York
City
Christopher
Janney
An “urban musical instrument” created for the 34th Street
N/R subway platform to enhance and connect subway riders
with their urban environment in an unusual way. As
passersby reach up and wave their hands in front of one of
the eight “eyes” a beam of light will be interrupted. This
activates REACH, which emits a range of sounds—from
melodic instruments [marimba, flute] to environmental
“sound images” [Everglades, rain forest]. (Janney, 2014)
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Piano
Staircase*
Stockholm DBB, VW
Fun Theory
To encourage citizens to use the stairs instead of escalator, a
musical experience was created on the staircase. Pressure
sensors react to footfall on each stair tread, which plays a
musical note according to the piano layout transposed on the
staircase. (Thefuntheory.com, 2009)
Central Park
(Listen to the
Light)
New York
City
Bluebrain,
Bradley
Feldman,
Zamtools
'Central Park' is a site-specific work of music that responds
to the listener’s location within the stretch of green of the
same name in New York City.
(Bluebrainmusic.blogspot.com, 2011)
Bryant Park
Wifi
New York
City
Bryant Park
Corporation,
Sky-Packets,
Meraki
Bryant Park Corporation teamed with Sky-Packets and
Meraki to install a brand new, state of the art wireless
network. The latest upgrade has made the system capable of
accommodating thousands of users each day, and has
enabled Bryant Park to be one of the busiest hotspots in the
world. (Bryantpark.org, 2014)
Sent Forth San
Francisco
Arup,
Jefferson
Mack
Sent Forth is conceived as a time-travelling airship which
has been collecting audio recordings of San Francisco across
the centuries. Recently, the airship has become stuck at Fort
Mason Center. As it attempts to revive itself, visitors will
hear fragments of collected soundscapes revealing histories
of the area, both composed by the malfunctioning ship and
influenced by the surrounding environment. (Arup.com,
2014)
Bruum Ruum! Barcelona David
Torrents,
artec3
Studio,
Ledscontrol
BruumRuum! is an interactive installation in the Plaza de
Glories, next to the Museum of Design (DHUB) and Torre
Agbar. Depending on the intensity of environmental sounds,
this installation changes shape and color, presenting a
dialogue between visitors and the public space through
sound and light. (LEDsCONTROL, 2014)
Skies Painted
with
Unnumbered
Sparks*
Vancouver Janet
Echelman,
Aaron
Koblin
At night the sculpture came to life as visitors were able to
choreograph the lighting in real time using physical gestures
on their mobile devices. Vivid beams of light were projected
across a massive scale as the result of small movements on
spectators’ phones.
In the daytime, the sculpture’s delicate yet monumental form
is subtle, blending in with clouds and sky. A complex matrix
of 860,000 hand and machine-made knots and 145 miles of
braided fiber weighing nearly 3,500 pounds span 745 feet
make up Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks.
(Echelman, 2014)
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The same list of projects with associated hardware - sensors and transducers -
implemented to deliver each experience can be found in the table below.
Project M IR US GPS T H C F Wifi TS A LS LED P
21 Balancoires
Silent Lights
LED Sidewalk
Reach: NYC
Piano Staircase
Central Park
Bryant Park
Sent Forth
Bruum Ruum!
Skies
Sensor/transducer abbreviations: M: microphone, IR: infrared, US: ultrasonic,
GPS: global positioning system, T: temperature, H: humidity, C: chroma (light),
F: force, Wifi: wireless internet, TS: touchscreen (smart phone),
A: accelerometer, LS: loudspeaker, LED: light emitting diode, P: projection
While it’s outside of the scope of this paper to dive into all the software packages
and languages used to create these experiences, it should be noted that packages
and libraries such as Processing, Max/MSP, Arduino IDE, Cinder, and Open
Frameworks were used to deliver the projects listed above. This list of software is
not meant to be exhaustive and all-inclusive of those used in each project, but
rather vaguely instructional, as the method of coding these types of installations
varies significantly from project to project.
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2.4 Economic Case Studies
2.4.1 Bryant Park Wifi
Bryant Park is maintained by the Bryant Park Corporation (BPC) in association
with the Bryant Park Management Corporation (BPMC). BPC signed a 35 year
agreement in 1985 with the City and has been the governing body that controls the
programs, plans upgrades, and handles day-to-day operations of the park ever
since.
BPC introduced free wifi throughout the park in 2002, partnering with Intel to
install and maintain the network. The costs were estimated to be $10,000 for the
up-front installation, with $1,000 monthly maintenance fee (Begay, 2002). The
network went through another $10,000 upgrade in 2008 (Collins, 2008). In 2011,
BPC partnered with Sky-Packets and Meraki to further update the wireless
network, providing capacity to serve 20,000 distinct clients per month, with 2,000
users on the network during peak times (Cisco Meraki, 2011). The cost of the
2011 upgrade is unknown.
Bryant Park is operated through the use of private funds, and does not receive
public money from the City. BPMC can be thought of as a business improvement
district, collecting an ‘annual property assessment’ from nearby, participating
businesses. In 2012, BPC’s operating revenues totaled $7.6M USD, made up of
sponsorships and contributions, restaurant rental income, park usage fees,
concessions, BPMC assessments, interest, and other sources (KPMG, 2012).
Park Usage Fees,
$2,688,676
Restaurant
Rental Income,
$1,617,373
Sponsorships &
Contributions,
$1,256,601
Concessions,
$1,051,998
BPMC
Assessments,
$900,000
Other Sources,
$109,842
Interest, $17,553
Bryant Park Corporation and Bryant Park Management Corporation Revenue, 2012 (KPMG, 2012)
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As an interesting aside, Keith Hampton et al published The Social Life of Wireless
Urban Spaces in 2010, which summarized observations of the social landscape of
public spaces in the wifi era. They replicated methodologies used by William
Whyte in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, using Bryant Park as one of 7
field sites. They found all sorts of statistical fun facts, like men outnumber women
in public internet use by three to one, and 10% of internet users engage in at least
one extended interaction with a stranger while in a space (Hampton et al, 2010).
Hampton also argues that ‘our tendency to interact with others in public spaces
has, if anything, improved since the ‘70s.’ (Oppenheimer, 2014)
2.4.2 Silent Lights
Silent Lights was conceived by Urban Matter Inc, and implemented in
collaboration with Studio Indefinit and Brett Burton in 2013. The project was
made possible through partnerships with the urban Arts Program of the
Department of Transportation of New York City, the Brooklyn Arts Council,
ArtPlace America, Black Rock Foundation, Designers Lighting Forum of New
York, Awesome Foundation, and individual donors. The total budget for the
project was $61,281 (Lin, 2014).
ArtPlace
America
$33,000
Brooklyn Arts
Council
$8,037
NYC DOT
$5,000
DLF NY
$5,000
Black Rock
Foundation
$4,800
Fundraiser Event
$4,088
Awesome
Foundation
$1,000
In-Kind
Contributions
$201
Individual
Contributions
$155
Silent Lights Budget (Lin, 2014)
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The majority of the costs for the project involved the fabrication and electrical
installation of the gates – the LED and sound designers were paid in meals.
2.4.3 Bluebrain – Central Park Listen to the Light
BlueBrain’s Central Park app is an entirely different take on creative
placemaking: by tracking the position of the user through their smart phone and
creating a custom piece of music based on where in Central Park the user is, a new
experience is created from an existing space without physically manipulating it.
It’s an entirely individual experience, something of a ‘choose your own
adventure’ of an album, and relies on the user to download the app before
exploring the park.
Fabrication
$25,500
Fabrication
Materials
$21,563
Electrical
Construction
$9,070
Electronic
Components
$2,189
Meals (design
fees)
$1,334
Insurance
$966
Transport
$344
Advertising and
Promotion
$315
Silent Lights Project Costs (Lin, 2014)
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This presents an interesting model for revenue generation in reference to the other
projects cited in this document. For instance, the two location-aware albums that
Bluebrain have created are reported to have been downloaded over 10,000 times
(McKinley Jr., 2011) – you don’t need a calculator to imagine the kind of revenue
could be gained by charging a one-time fee for the initial download.
In the case of this particular project, the app is free. The costs of producing the
app are unknown. Bradley Feldman apparently developed the software pro bono,
after Bluebrain received proposals from other developers that ranged from
$80,000 and up (Green, 2011). The Central Park app included 400 orchestral
tracks, performed by friends and recorded at a studio where the founders of
Bluebrain are employed (McKinley Jr., 2011).
3 Conclusion
It’s my hope that by now, you’ve read a decent amount of the preceding text, and
maybe even clicked a few links and jumped down a smart-placemaking-project
rabbit hole or two along the way. Hopefully, I’ve demonstrated the following:
• Placemaking is the act of designing the look, feel, and experience of an
environment, and when done successfully, leads to a distinct character,
improved quality of life, and increased economic activity in a given city.
• A number of projects have been carried out that incorporate digital
technologies to help achieve a successful creative placemaking experience
within a public space – from musical swings to interactive projections onto
sculpture made of fishing nets.
• There exist a range of smart technologies that are used to deliver smart,
creative placemaking projects – from microphones to accelerometers to
infrared sensors. If one were to become a practitioner in this field, the author
highly recommends getting some practical experience exploring these
technologies, and specifically experiencing first-hand what kind of data can be
obtained using these types of sensors and transducers, both from a data format
and noisiness/stability standpoint. While it’s outside of the scope of this paper,
it’s worth noting that there is also a range of software and coding skills
necessary to create these experiences.
• The economics of smart, creative placemaking projects vary from private
revenue models to public funds and grants to flat out pro-bono passion
projects.
As digital technologies become more and more intertwined in our daily lives, the
role of digital technologies in creative placemaking becomes increasingly natural.
This is not to say every example of successful placemaking in the modern age
requires the use of digital technology – but rather, clever and well-designed use of
technology can lead to successful and smart placemaking opportunities within a
city.
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