HARVARD GSD
Architectural research
Quantifying space
Measuring the invisible in the built environment
These projects examine the research side to architectural practice – where understanding context and new innovations, elevate the lived experience of a city, building or space. The following projects examine different facets of architectural research, with varying focuses such as subjective data collection, or new sustainability innovations.
Bergamo eMotion
Bergamo eMotion was an initiative to quantify subjected data about mobility in the city of Bergamo, Italy. We collected the perception of the citizens of Bergamo, Italy as they travel on transportation systems. The app designed was meant to act as a research tool, used by professors and students of the University of Bergamo to collect data about mobility around the city. The tool uses the passive collection of environmental and location data from the smart phone sensors, and emotive data collected from the participants at specific moments.
The “REAL Cities | Bergamo 2035” research and teaching initiative was part of a multi-tier, multi-year academic collaboration between the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, USA, and the University of Bergamo (UNIBG), Italy. Team: Allen Sayegh, Stefano Andreani, Natasha Polozenko and Stefan Stanojevic - Harvard Graduate School of Design, REAL Lab + University of Bergamo
Crowdsourcing perception
Although being useful in understanding the built environment, the traditional method of data collection, leaves no room for interpretation, and fails to consider the complexities and variables that may influence the ways in which individuals perceive their surroundings.
Measuring qualitative subjective data in conjunction with an objective data set extracted from sensors, allows for a more detailed, nuanced understanding of everyday spatial interactions. This novel understanding of the built environment and the ways in which people understand and perceive it, allows for our experience of the city to adjust to more nuanced context.
Team: Natasha Polozenko and Stefan Stanojevic - Harvard Graduate School of Design "Genome of the Built Environment" - Professors: Allen Sayegh + Stefano Andreani. Check out our Paper in Springer for more information.
BKSK Lab: Green Sheets
Perhaps architects should stop designing with the ephemeralness of current practices, and become aware of architectural longevity. If buildings were allowed to adapt to the changing times, as opposed to relying heavily on rapidly obsoleting representations, then perhaps the trajectory of spatial longevity could be saved. It's time to make sustainable practices more transparent. With transparency comes application. The Green Sheets are a series of information snapshots about a specific technology of sustainable practices in order to inform clients and contractors.
Team: Jennifer Preston - BKSK Architects
