About the UrbanIxD project

UrbanIxD

UrbanIxD is a Coordination Action project, running from 2013-2014, for the European Commission under the Future and Emerging Technologies programme. This Coordination Action will define a coherent multidisciplinary research community working in the domain of technologically augmented, data-rich urban environments, with particular focus on the human activities, experiences and behaviours that occur within them (Interaction Design).

The project will employ a “Critical Design” methodology to explore social and technological issues that will be important to future FET research agendas. This Critical Design methodology will act as a catalyst for reflection and examination, leading to a high-profile public outreach programme, including an exhibition, and will enable the production of an informed Research Agenda output. This Agenda document will use the exploratory design activities carried out across the duration of the project to reflect upon emergent issues, and synthesise these into a focussed statement on future research directions.

Interaction Design, in an urban context, (UrbanIxD) is an increasingly important field of research. City populations are currently in a state of rapid flux. Conurbations are fast becoming a hybrid of the physical environment and the digital world. How we, as physical beings, will connect with, interpret and adapt this increasing dataflow residing in our cities is already becoming a significant research question.

Partners

• Dr Michael Smyth, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
• Dr Martin Brynskov, University of Aarhus, Denmark
• Gianluca Zaffiro, Telecom Italia, Italy
• Dr Ivica Mitrović, University of Split, Croatia

We are delighted that following people have already joined the project Advisory Board

• Prof DK Arvind, Chair in Distributed Wireless Computation, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Arianna Bassoli, CEO, Frestyl, Italy
• Attila Bujdosó, Architect, senior research supervisor, Kitchen Budapest, Hungary
• René Boer, Independent urbanist + FailedArchitecture, The Netherlands
• Jason Bruges, Creative Director of Jason Bruges Studio, UK
• Pablo Sánchez Chillón, Eolex Citylab Founder & Urban 360 º Editor, Spain
• Prof Richard Coyne, Professor of Architectural Computing, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Léan Doody, Smart Cities Lead, Arup, UK
• Prof Paul Dourish, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine, US
• Prof Ernest Edmonds, Director, Creativity and Cognition Studios, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. Chair in the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University, UK
• Manu Fernández, Independent researcher and consultant, Spain
• Prof Dr Alois Ferscha, Institut für Pervasive Computing, Johannes Kepler University, Austria
• Associate Prof Marcus Foth, Director, Urban Informatics Research Lab, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
• Carlos J. Gómez de Llarena, Med44, Media Architect & Interaction Designer, New York, US
• Adam Greenfield, Founder and managing director, Urbanscale, US
• Usman Haque, Founder of Cosm (Pachube), UK
• Dan Hill, CEO, Fabrica, Italy
• Émile Hooge, Urban innovation consultant – partner at nova7, France
• Rob van Kranenburg, Founder, the Internet of Things Council, Belgium
• Roderick McCall, The University of Luxembourg
• Riccardo Marini, City Design Leader, City of Edinburgh Council, Senior Consultant, Gehl Architects, Urban Quality Consultants, UK
• Ramia Mazé, Senior researcher, Interactive Institute, Sweden. Research fellow, IIT Institute of Design, US
• Yiorgos Papamanousakis, Urban Transcripts, France
• Susa Pop, Public Art Lab, Berlin, Germany
• Lea Rekow, Founding director, Green My Favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Mark Shepard, Departments of Architecture and Media Study, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, US
• Prof Andrew Shoben, FRBS, Goldsmiths, University of London; Founder, Greyworld, UK
• Martijn de Waal, The Mobile City, The Netherlands
• Duncan Wilson, Director, Intel ICRI Sustainable Connected Cities, UK