4.557/MAS.552  Model Cities ~ Rapid Urban Prototyping for Innovation Districts

-- Cities all over the world are developing “innovation districts” where a critical mass of creative people can live, work, play and share ideas in compact, vibrant communities. Kendall Square, Boston’s Seaport District, Somerville’s future Brickbottom District, and Harvard’s expansion into Allston have all been referred to as innovation districts. 

But what actually enables innovation? 

In this course, students will explore a data-drive, evidence-based approach to modeling and simulating creative, entrepreneurial, livable communities.  Participants will gain experience with data collection, data visualization, and dynamic urban simulation using various tools developed for our CityScope platform. The impact of urban interventions will be modeled, ranging from micro-apartments for Millennials to shared-use autonomous mobility networks.

Enrollment -- This class seeks highly motivated students with the necessary skills to dive deep into an aspect of this problem.  Designers with a background in data analysis and visualization, or computer scientists interested in urbanism, design and human dynamics, are especially welcome.   Participants will be required to submit a short essay of interest, CV and portfolio.  Prior experience with Rhino, Grasshopper, GIS, processing, or Unity is particularly useful.

Class Description -- The class will consist of the three phases:

1. Collecting and Visualizing Data

   -- What are the important variables?  Beginning with Kendall Square, which is often cited as a model urban innovation district, students will make use of readily available data as well as new sources, which may include Google Maps, telecom data, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, and CrunchBase to better understand the qualities and social dynamics of a place.

2. Modeling Interventions

   -- Students will propose and model the impact of selected interventions that could improve the creative potential and livability of a district.  Interventions may be related to design, infrastructure, technology, or public policy. 

3. Developing CityScope Models

   -- Students will develop dynamic, parametric models for urban interventions using CityScope  See: http://cp.media.mit.edu/mit-observatory

If interested, please join us for first class session on Wed September 7th starting at 2pm in MIT Media Lab room E15-359.