Augmenting the sociability of media architecture.

The role of the built environment as an ideal place for social interaction is diminishing by the increasing interaction between computers and people. At the same time, developments in display technology and building materials have led to new forms of media architecture, which have the ability to interact with people and places. However, media architecture serves mainly commercial, artistic or entertainment purposes, does not relate to the social layering in its environment, and neglects the architectural and urban fabric. This research aims to investigate the sociable (i.e. the ability to be socially relevant) qualities of media architecture, in terms of: analyzing the functional parameters that causally influence its success in supporting the development of social activity and identity of place; and developing new architectural interfaces through the temporal programming of spatial quality as buildable elements that form an integral part of architectural design. We believe that new knowledge is urgently required to allow architects and urban planners to understand the full potential of interactive systems over that of reactive systems, so that the integration of media technology in our built environment will not suffer from the visual blindness and emotional disconnection that we know from current forms of public advertising.

Keywords:Hci, Display, Open data, Interaction design, Public screen, Visualization, Urban computing

Disciplines:Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences, Communication sciences, Journalism and professional writing, Media studies, Other media and communications, Applied mathematics in specific fields, Computer architecture and networks, Distributed computing, Information sciences, Information systems, Programming languages, Scientific computing, Theoretical computer science, Visual computing, Other information and computing sciences