BRIDE Closing Event with HCAIS

In the BRIDE (BRIdging Data in the built Environment) project, engineers, designers, and philosophers collaborated to explore the role design can play in shaping urban infrastructure so that it contributes to more expansive notions of urban intelligence. In this closing event, we reflect on some key takeaways from the project. The event is open to all BRIDE consortium partners, as well as our colleagues at TU Delft, University of Twente, AMS Institute and Responsible Sensing Lab. This event is offered in collaboration with TU Delft HCAIS and open to all its community members. 

Programme

• 12:45 | Walk-in
• 13:00 | Welcome
• 13:15 | Talk 1: Michael Nagenborg (University of Twente) on bridging the gaps between humans and their infrastructure
• 13:30 | Talk 2: Fabian Geiser (Responsible Sensing Lab) on the governance of urban infrastructure innovation
• 13:45 | Talk 3: Kars Alfrink (TU Delft) on the design of urban AI for contestability
• 14:00 | Discussion with audience
• 14:30 | Closing

BRIdging data in the built Environment (BRIDE)

The aim of the BRIDE project is to explore the role of smart public infrastructure in making and re-making of public space. Utilizing research through design and mobilizing an empirical-philosophical theory of technology, the research team will engage in the design and construction of data interaction systems for an Internet of Things-enabled 3D printed bridge in Amsterdam. Building on the concept of cityness, the BRIDE project will provide insight into how designers, technologists, and citizens can utilize IoT technologies for designing urban space that expresses its intelligence from the intersection of people, places, activities and technology, not merely from the presence of cutting-edge technology. The research through design methodologies allows for participatory data-informed design processes that mediate the relation between pedestrians and “their” bridge.

The multidisciplinary research team comprises scholars from humanities (philosophy of technology), industrial design, and computer science. By analyzing the whole design process of the bridge – covering planning, design, development, construction, use, and data applications – the project will close a fundamental knowledge gap in urban research, design, and engineering of how smart technologies and manufacturing processes can be harnessed as 'Design Material' in urban design projects. By developing a theoretically sound and practically informed understanding of “cityness”, the project will provide insight in how smart technologies can be utilized to design for cityness, eventually promoting citizen’s feeling of ownership of the public space (“citizen led governance”).