We live amidst real-time data flows, with sensors measuring everything from air quality to traffic, with our own cell phones yielding information about our whereabouts and activity levels, with buildings reporting on their own energy consumption and maintenance. This urban “intelligence” ostensibly allows for the optimization of our environments and our selves – for the production of “smart cities” and smart citizens.

The hybrid studio examined how the methods of data science shape our civic values and urban imaginaries, and condition the work of urban design and administration and the consequences on the material environment, for urban citizenship, for quality of life, etc. – when data and efficiency drive design and development decisions. The studio took the nearby Hudson Yards as the case study to explore not only how “smartness” is operationalized in such new urban developments, but also what other kinds of intelligence have long been present in our cities. 

_ Links
Leonardo Electronic Almanac, “Auditing Urban Intelligence: Interfacing Place-Based Knowledge”

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