Sukanya Krishnamurthy
architecture in the Faculty of the Built Environment at Eindhoven University of T echnology have been gathering and analysing empirical data through interviews, surveys and observations within the city of Eindhoven, particularly focusing on the two neighbourhoods Woenselse Heide and De Tempel, in the borough of Woensel-Noord, in 2016. By participating in various workshops through 2016 and 2017 with a group of graduate students in architecture and urbanism from Eindhoven University of Technology, we have aimed to contextualise the impacts of the shift towards what the municipality has termed a “smart society”. Neighbourhood walk-alongs, semi-structured interviews and open-ended questions provided valuable feedback on the impact of technology on place and society. The research was carried out at various stages. We first aimed at getting an overview of how existing “smart” initiatives in the city addressed society’s needs, and the resident population’s impression of ongoing activities. Following this process and subsequent data collection, we conducted desk-based studies of literature and policy documents on these initiatives. To conclude the research activities and contextualise the impact of technology on public space in Woenselse Heide and De Tempel, in mid-2017 we expanded our data collection to four more areas in Eindhoven: Strijp-S, Woensel-West, the city centre and Stratumseind. We aimed to quantify the social and physical dynamics of technology in these areas and developed scenarios for putting people back at the centre of the debate. By exploring a number of daily practices and ongoing projects within these neighbourhoods, we showed that investigating local challenges could inform a more successful implementation of projects involving smart lighting, street sensors, augmented reality, cocreative projects, living labs, and so on. These examples highlight the intersection of municipal desires for experimental urban futures and how they can be aligned with the realities of everyday living. Through this work, we aim to open up the discussion on innovation and to plead for a much greater diversity of ideas and approaches to become visible in urban discourses and future experimentation. Finally, projects and scenarios developed by students during the research show how people, design and the use of technology can merge.
Impact of technology and public space was discussed during Dutch Design Week at the Embassy of Data, 26 October 2017. Photo: Sukanya Krishnamurthy
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