Augmented Spatiality

Abstract

Designers have long been concerned with new and visionary types of public space. With the advent of ubiquitous computing, architects and designers have become increasingly aware of the opportunities and challenges in designing spaces and everyday objects to support socially-oriented human interactions whether through spatial or technological means. This paper presents a novel transdiscplinary method for designing new interactive architectural prototypes that promote connectivity and social interactions in the public space in order to address specific agendas of urban interventions. The proposed method was evaluated in a pilot studio, in which students across various design and technical disciplines were invited to propose utopian socio-technological visions for a particular site and to develop their ideas into working architectural prototypes that could be installed at the chosen site and tested by the public. The open brief generated various responses and outcomes in eight projects, of which two are discussed in this paper.