I visualised how algorithms ‘see’ urban environments and build detailed profiles of citizens

Final Published versio

Mapping Connectedness of Global Cities: α, β and γ tiers

An elaboration of data from a database in the form of an atlas. The atlas shows the categorization of world cities into α, β and γ tiers, based upon their international connectedness. From this visualization it emerges where each city is virtually oriented to other cities of the same level of inter-connectivity. The world map is configured as an archipelago, where each city appears utterly separated from its geographical surrounding and closer to other cities of the same level. The leading parameters for the new configuration are based on mutual connections, primarily in the global economic system. The atlas shows the world cities according to the GaWC categorization of 201

Your personal space is no longer physical – it’s a global network of data

In the digital world, any action we do generates data – whether browsing the internet, answering emails or messaging our friends. Translated into radio waves, this information can travel almost effortlessly through space in a split second. Data are all around us, invisibly occupying the space between ourselves and other objects in the built environment. My colleagues and I conducted a study to understand how the presence of all this data alters our understanding of personal and public spaces.Final Published versio

Transdisciplinarity: A New Generation of Architects and Mediocritas

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. © 2016 The Author. An Architectural Research Centres Consortium publication.The discussion about the legitimacy of architecture being an autonomous discipline or a part of an interrelated system of areas of knowledge has been long discussed[i]. This article connects the scenario described by Fraser[ii] and Wigley[iii] where architecture needs to be considered in an expanded field as consequence of the post-critical period, to the work of a new generation of architects whose interest lies on questions that are peripheral to architecture sensu stricto. The type of architecture that emerges in this scenario is characterised by a proclivity towards other disciplines, including politics, economics and social studies. The article presents a series of examples of recent projects and discusses the impact of their approach to architecture. As a conclusion, this paper proposes the notion of mediocritas to establish a right balance between architecture as an autonomous discipline and its contamination with other cultural fields.Peer reviewe

Big data is adding a whole new dimension to public spaces – here’s how

Most of us encounter public spaces in our daily lives: whether it’s physical space (a sidewalk, a bench, or a road), a visual element (a panorama, a cityscape) or a mode of transport (bus, train or bike share). But over the past two decades, digital technologies such as smart phones and the internet of things are adding extra layers of information to our public spaces, and transforming the urban environment.Final Published versio

Self-Organizing Floor Plans

© 2021 by the author(s). The editorial is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode)This article introduces and comments on some of the techniques currently used by designers to generate automatic building floor plans and spatial configurations in general, with emphasis on machine learning and neural networks models. This is a relatively new tendency in computational design that reflects a growing interest in advanced generative and optimization models by architects and building engineers. The first part of this work contextualizes self-organizing floor plans in architecture and computational design, highlighting their importance and potential for designers as well as software developers. The central part discusses some of the most common techniques with concrete examples, including Neuro Evolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). The final section of the article provides some general comments considering pitfalls and possible future developments, as well as speculating on the future of this trend.Peer reviewe

Machine learning and computational design

© 2020 ACM. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ubiquity [Vol 2020, Iss. May, (May 2020): https://doi.org/10.1145/3401842.The use of computers in design is substantially different today from what it was only 30 years ago, and light-years ahead of how things were designed before computers entered the scene 60 years ago. This article discusses the use of computers, more specifically computational design, as a useful tool for designers. Herein, computational design refers to the application of computational tools to design practice.Peer reviewe

Editorial: Pathways to resilient zero carbon cities

© 2022 Jankovic and Carta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Peer reviewe

Trojans of ambiguity vs resilient regeneration: visual meaning in cities

© 2020 by the author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.This paper presents a theoretical framework that helps identify visual sustainability in urban projects and evaluates its relevance for the use, design and making of public space. It is aimed at showing how the process of urban regeneration is far more nuanced and sophisticated than much of today’s building industry allows for. The first part of the article provides an outline of this framework, by drawing from the notion of ambiguity and discussing regeneration around a concept of trojans of ambiguity: by which we simply mean that modern-day regeneration projects are often a confusion of meaning. The framework is then applied to two case studies: Heygate, and Sidewalk Labs Toronto. The Heygate regeneration produced a negative emotionally charged process and social displacement. By contrast Sidewalk Labs Toronto exemplifies a technologically clean start for regeneration, on a site with little social vitality or history. The starting points for each ultimately point to two very different outcomes. Visual sustainability represents ‘the technology before the technology’ and future research must recognise how human needs, not technology, provide the meaning into ‘how’ we may create a successful, smart, and sustainable urban environment.Peer reviewe