a+u Architecture and Urbanism 21:09_612

This September issue of a+u is devoted to new technologies in urban science and their applications in settings that range from the aesthetics of urban spaces to participatory democracy and public health. The question posed to our guest editor, Yuji Yoshimura, is how these technologies will change the ways in which architects shape urban spaces. Projects from Barcelona, which has been at the forefront of using these new tools at the municipal level, are presented alongside recent efforts in the United States and Japan, covering not only “the physical aspects of cities”, but also “the systems and public-private platforms that have made them possible, and how cities can consider the issue of privacy.” We discover how information can be gathered, visualized, and used as a communication and design tool to…

What does science mean to architects? This inquiry is the theme of this issue.1 Originally, science and technology developed separately, while at the same time influencing one another.2 Architects have shaped cities by imagining in their own minds how human activity unfolds in space and time, while using construction techniques in architecture, planning techniques in urban planning, and techniques for eliciting participation in community building.3 However, with advances in measuring instruments and the infiltration of digital technology into society, many of our activities in time and space are now being collected as big data, at considerable granularity. We have thus entered an era where human behavior, which architects could previously only imagine “in their heads,” can now be scientifically analyzed as data. Given these circumstances, how might we go about…

Paris, France 2010– Visitor Studies at the Louvre Interviews, questionnaires, and direct observation methods have been used in visitor studies to research how visitors move and behave in museums and art galleries. However, in a vast museum such as the Louvre in Paris, where the average length of stay exceeds 4 hours, it seemed difficult to collect data by manually tracking visitor movements from entrance to exit. Therefore, we created sensors that can detect Bluetooth signals through visitors’ mobile devices, and installed these sensors near some of the most popular artworks in the museum. This system made it possible to collect big data such as visitor viewing times at each work, viewing routes, and time spent in the museum. However, even if this information were to be collected, it does not mean…

Ildefons Cerdà (1815–1876), trained as an engineer in Madrid and lived as a citizen of Barcelona from 1848, designing the extension of Barcelona known as Eixample, or Ensanche, in 1854–1859. Cerdà also coined the term urbanización and was among the first designers to offer a Teoria general de la urbanitzación (General Theory of Urbanization), published in 1867, which guided his work in Barcelona. His efforts to plan modern cities more healthfully and efficiently took place during the period when the ongoing massive transformations of the human environment, the result of rapid industrialization, were just beginning. In Barcelona those changes began in the 1830s. The first railways in Spain also appeared there in 1848, centered on the França Station. There, changes were taking place as Napoleon III began his transformations of…

Making Sense EU, IAAC Barcelona, Spain 2017 Making Sense created a methodology that enables communities to appropriate their own sensing tools in order to understand their environment. This method encourages action in addressing environmental problems such as air pollution, noise, and nuclear radiation. The project has created impact through 3 steps of transformative change: strongly defining smart citizens as the point of reference for the “smart city”; sharing core stakeholders knowledge, technology, and experience to allow the collection and analysis of data; and providing a framework, through action and policy-making, to facilitate change. Our Contribution The Smart Citizen project – composed of open source software, open source hardware, digital maker practices, and design – was created at Fab Lab Barcelona and put to use by Making Sense as a tool to help engage European…

Ajuntament de Barcelona Barcelona, Spain 2020–2021 In a pioneering democratic exercise, the people of Barcelona have a direct say in how 75 million euros is to be invested in their neighborhood or district. The participatory budget accounts for 5% of municipal investment earmarked for the current period through 2023, and is conducted using the Decidim.Barcelona platform. The participatory budget is a step toward a model of direct democracy that involves citizens in decision-making processes, enabling them to make proposals, debate them, prioritize them, and make a choice. Investment resulting from proposals by local people must satisfy a number of requisites. The main areas of work are: · Renovation, reform, extension, improvement, and technological equipping of public facilities such as community centers, schools, and sports facilities· Construction of small facilities· Urban renewal and improvement of public…