HS2018 | Information Architecture and Responsive Cities
To demonstrate the potential of Responsive Cities, this course will define the concept of Citizen Design Science, a combination of Citizen Design, Citizen Science and Design Science. Experts, citizens and scientists participate in Citizen Design Science. This approach is still in an early stage of development, but with the Responsive Cities Massive Open Online Course, you will be ahead in exploring and defining its possibilities.
‘Responsive cities’ is the fourth edition of the ‘Future Cities’ series on urban MOOCs. The ‘Future Cities’ series is the first and complete series of urban courses dealing with the design, management and transformation of cities for their sustainable and resilient future. With every edition, the series becomes more interactive. It increasingly empowers citizens around the world to become part of the development of their own cities, especially in those places where this knowledge is needed most. Therefore, the course is inclusive for every individual interested in the planning, construction, redevelopment and management of future cities. The course is open to anyone regardless of background, skills, knowledge, or age.
We are looking for a person who is proficient in the development of intuitive web-based user interfaces for a project with a strong practical application. The goal is to provide a tool that is capable of informing different parties in the urban planning process and enables to design and analyse different planning possibilities. The tool will consist of a front end that should easily allow the users to come up with different scenarios, which are then analysed and depicted in strong visualisations. We will apply and use the tool in a real planning process in Einsiedeln, involving local authorities and citizens. Thus the project will have a real impact. The main tasks will include the development of a web-based user interface and the adaptation of existing analysis tools to the needs of the target audience, including the connection with the user interface. The project may also involve theoretical work on the analysis methods and algorithms.
The successful candidate must be a reliable, enthusiastic student with skills and willingness to program intuitive user interfaces, who has knowledge in Python and web-based programming.
We look forward to receiving your online application. Please address your application to Mr. Matthias Steiger, Human Resources. Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.For further information about the Chair for Information Architecture please visit our website http://www.ia.arch.ethz.ch. Questions regarding the position should be directed to Denise Weber by email denise.weber@arch.ethz.ch (no applications).
Intern or Student Assistant – DBMS
ESUM, Analysing trade-offs between Energy & Social performance of Urban Morphologies, is an SNF project where we investigate the impacts of urban morphology on building energy consumption and also on citizen perception for case studies in Switzerland and Germany. We simulate energy demand for over 4,000 buildings in the case study areas and link this to perception via descriptors of urban morphology (building geometry, isovists and street network configuration). Perception is measured through surveys and biofeedback data from participants who walk along select street networks. As a final outcome, we develop a predictive model to estimate the effects of pure urban form on perception and energy consumption of neighbourhoods.
Primary tasks of this position are to develop a database management system in postgreSQL to manage the high volume of input/output data for the above mentioned urban energy models which are created in the software CitySim. The candidate is expected to design a schema from the user specifications and program a relational DBMS that will be bi-directionally accessed and used by multiple applications such as CitySim, python and QGIS.
We are looking for an enthusiastic student with prior experience and appropriate skill sets in database management programming and design. This will require intermediate to advanced level of knowledge. Interest and experience in building energy systems, building level or city level energy modelling is an advantage, but not required for the position. The duration of employment is for 5 weeks full time and may be distributed over 3 Months.
We look forward to receiving your online application. Please address your application to Mr. Matthias Steiger, Human Resources. Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.For further information about the Chair for Information Architecture please visit our website http://www.ia.arch.ethz.ch. Questions regarding the position should be directed to Danielle Griego by email griego@arch.ethz.ch (no applications).
TEDx TUM talk by Prof. Gerhard Schmitt
A vision of the responsive city of the future
Cities are among the greatest accomplishments of mankind – but they have not quite learned to respond to the needs of their inhabitants yet. Gerhard Schmitt believes that the communication between the city of the future and its people should be bi-directional. He reveals some approaches to make this possible, and interleaves his research with numerous, fascinating examples from people shaping their cities around the world.
Check the TEDx talk by Prof. Gerhard Schmitt on responsive cities:
Cities are first and foremost built for people, and in today’s world, people produce large amounts of valuable data, thus contributing to what we call “smart cities.” As almost every building and every city is a prototype, these communities are in the early stage of development and require specific attention and expertise as we advance.
Smart cities, such as Zurich and Boston, consist of human-made structures or environments that are, in some capacity, monitored, metered, networked and controlled. With this functionality, combined with stationary sensors and mobile devices, data and information have become the new building materials of future cities. Using this data, citizens are now beginning to influence the design of future cities and the re-design of existing ones.
In this architecture course, you will learn the basics of information cities and urban science research, as well as how dynamic behavior and citizen-driven learning differentiate the responsive city from the smart city. The cities we present and develop in this course use the stocks and flows of information as the main drivers of change.
To deepen your knowledge of smart cities and give a perspective on the future of these cities, we also introduce the concept of citizen design science, a combination of citizen science, urban design, and cognitive design computing. Participants will furthermore have unique access to a design research platform for citizen design science. The intelligent use of data and information is at the core of this course, and these concepts will be the next generation of participatory design and design computing environments.
This course is part of the “Future Cities” XSeries, and builds on the experiences from our first two urban MOOCs: Future Cities and Livability in Future Cities.
FS2017 | Information Architecture and Future Cities: Smart Cities
What will happen when cities change from static configurations into responsive and dynamic structures? What does it mean for buildings that undergo the same changes? What is the impact on architectural and urban design education? How can citizens influence this development? The smart cities course will answer these questions and supply you with the necessary skills and knowledge to understand and design such dynamic structures. The intelligent use of data and information are at the core of this course. Data and information are new building materials of future cities. Citizens produce increasing amounts of data in their daily life, with stationary sensors and mobile smartphones. Using those data, citizens begin to influence the design of future cities and the re-design of existing ones. The course will be a first step towards the emerging citizen design science and cognitive design computing. Those will be the next generation of participatory design and design computing. The course will run parallel to the edX MOOC on Smart Cities.
Where: HIT H 31.4 (Video wall)
When: Mondays 13:00 – 14:00
2 ECTS
FS2017 | Creative Data Mining: Uncover and Evaluate
The participants of this course learn how to collect, process, analyze and interpret real spatial and temporal data in order to work with quantifiable qualities in urban planning. This is achieved by using actual data from a recent study and analysing it with different data processing and machine learning techniques.
The goal of the course is to explore a specific research question about the urban environment and test the stated hypothesis using different techniques presented in the course, thus preparing students with a skill-set to further support their design and decision making processes.
The course focuses on creating deeper insights to critically evaluate design alternatives for urban planning projects. Students will work with time-series and geo-referenced data including temperature, relative humidity, illuminance, noise, people density, and dust particulate matter. Subjective impression survey data will also be integrated into the student projects to further explore influencing factors of the urban environment on our perceptual experiences. Non-architectural skills the participants can develop during this course are 1) an introduction to programming 2) how clustering methods like PCA or K-Means could be applied in an architectural context.
Where: HIT H 31.4 (Video wall)
When: Mondays 10:00 – 12:00
A solid knowledge of computational methods is an increasingly important key competence for future architects or urban planners. In this course you will learn how to analyze and generate spatial configurations with advanced computational methods.
In a series of theory lectures we explore how designing and planning of cities could become more evidence based by using scientific methods. Various exercises will provide training for your skills in working with state-of-the-art yet office-proven design tools (Rhino/Grasshopper and add-ons). In an integral project work, you will deepen your knowledge in spatial analysis and simulation methods such as Space Syntax using ConfigUrbanist and Decoding Spaces components packages and environmental analysis with the add-ons LadyBug and HoneyBee. In addition, you will acquire skills for using analysis methods for generative design processes. Therefore we introduce you into the parametric design software Grasshopper for Rhino 3D.
Based on the methods introduced during the semester, you will learn and understand different effects of planning and design interventions on urban life. At the end of the course you will be able to interpret analysis and simulation results, and to apply corresponding computational methods to your own planning projects.
