Engaging Public Voice in Big Data Society An on-line participatory design experiment. by Yi Hou B.L.A at Iowa State University, 2012 Submitted to the Department of Architecture in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology February 2016 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MAR 2 9 2010 LIBRARIES ARCHVES @ 2016 Yi Hou. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature redacted Sig n at u re o f A utho r: .................................................................................................................. .. ..... ........ .... ... .. tmW o Architecture January 15, 2016 Signature redacted C e rtifie d b y ...............................................................................................................................-. -5 - .. - .------ --- c --- - 'U ehiko agakura Associate Professor of Design and Computation Thesis Advisor Accepted by..........................................................................................................S ignature redacted Takehiko Nagakura Chair of the Department Committee on Graduate Students
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Engaging Public Voice in Big Data SocietyAn on-line participatory design experiment.
by Yi Hou
B.L.A at Iowa State University, 2012
Submitted to the Department of Architecturein Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Architecture at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology
February 2016
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTEOF TECHNOLOGY
MAR 2 9 2010
LIBRARIES
ARCHVES
@ 2016 Yi Hou. All rights reserved.
The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electroniccopies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created.
Signature redactedSig n at u re o f A utho r: .................................................................................................................. .. ..... ........ .... ..... tmW o Architecture
January 15, 2016
Signature redactedC e rtifie d b y ...............................................................................................................................-. -5 -.. - .------ --- c --- -
'U ehiko agakuraAssociate Professor of Design and Computation
Chair of the Department Committee on Graduate Students
Thesis Committee
Thesis AdvisorTakehiko NagakuraAssociate Professcof Design and Computation
Thesis ReadersSarah WilliamsAssistant Professor of Information Technology and Urban Planning
Imdat AsAssistant Professor at University of Hartford
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Engaging Public Voice in Big Data SocietyAn on-line participatory design experiment.
byYi Hou
Submitted to the Department of Architectureon January 15th, 2016
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofMaster of Architecture
Abstract
Should the design of architecture be solely in control by architects? Should we trust the public to let them
design with us? These are the core discussion revolves around participatory design, a design approachinvolves public effort. In theory, this democratic process should results a more responsive and suitable
project for users. Although the concept of participatory design works well in theory, but there are
constrains that stopped itself from wider application. How can we collect large amount of ideas that can
directly lead to a design solution? Will the result have any advantage compare to traditional designprocess?
Building upon historic precedents, my thesis proposes an on-line participatory platform, a new computa-tional tool that allows large number of participants participate into the design process. Each user's desirecan be translated into a set of data that represents their preferences on architecture. Then, to extractcommon patterns from data pool to compute result. The final goal is to calculate an optimized design that
will suit most users'desire. Will the public like what they designed collectively? The result will spark an
interesting discussion.
Thesis Advisor : Takehiko NagakuraTitle: Associate Professor of Design and Computation
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Bibliography
Negroponte, Nicholas. The Architecture Machine. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T., 1968. Print.
The stressful process of creating a user satisfied design,because architectjust don't get the idea.....
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Yona Friedman's pictograms from Negroponte's "ComputerAided Participatory Design" in "Soft Architecture Machines"
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Early studies from Nicholas Negroponte
First image: Participant sketch out his version of the ideal house,Second image: Participant created an abstracted diagram that represents the spatial relationship between programs.Third image: Computer redrew the same diagram.Foulrth image: Computer generated plan from diagram.Fifth image: Computer reinterpreted previous diagram and generated new diagram based on the same concept.
Svth) 5maqo ompter rfqln(r1te new [plan> (M share~ the' samefl c:Onc:pt wItl dther ihs t dhi difrn crfKLquration
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Traditional design approach
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Participatory approach
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Crowd-sourcing ProgramsPlace Pulse quantitatively measures urban perception by crowdsourcing visual surveys to users around the globe.
This program asks users to compare images collected by Google from different part of the world. By letting large
amount of users to evaluate which place do they like better, a collective big data pool is created to rank places based
on users inputs.
Which place looks livelier?
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More depre-s g Less depressing
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INTRODUCTION
Project overview 12-18
Pa ion J 8
Site Location: Kendal SquareKqllndl quar has - un iqu dvata on location and demographic. Its close relation with MITI has offered the potential to
become the most innovative square mile on this planet. At the same time, its location has also brought a great complexity ofdemand into its territory. A mixed group of student, tech-company employees, workers, and tourists presence at different time.Therefore, I choose to apply my participatory strategy to engage this highly diverse and dynamic neighborhood, in order to
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Zoning DistrictsDuring the early stage of the project, I started to introduce various constrains to
setup the computational logic. One of them is zoning regulations. The site situated
on C-1 and PUD-5 zone, which development is limited by both zoning requirments.
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C3B ResidenceMultifamilyLimited OfficeFAR: 3.0/4.0Height: 1 20'Minimum Area Per Units: 300 sq. ft.Maximum units per Acre: 145
PUD-5Office, Retail, HotelFAR: 2.080% builtable area, 3 story building
MXRmodifies the base residential district regulations in areas with substantial non-residential uses to encourage
residential conversion and retail and consumer services to support residential uses.
Overlay DistrictsAn overlay district is a set of zoning regulations for a defined area that are required either in addition to the base
district's regulations or in lieu of those regulations. Overlay zoning is used to protect the character of an area of
special concern or to encourage new development subject to additional controls.
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Project ovrv iew12
PARTICIPATORY PLATFORMGame development 20-26
m-age tpiatfcorm dievelopme nt 3-3Pattern extraction 37-38
retail in Kendall Square. Among the existing retail
establishments in the Square, bookstores, coffeeshops, farmers markets, and food trucks were ratedas highly desirable by the community, according to
the Customer Intercept Survey done by the CommLI-nity Development Department in 2011. "work" wasthe primary purpose for respondents being in Kend-all Square. This indicates that the area has a larger
daytime population and a relatively smaller nighttime
population
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List of Desired Businesses in Kendall Square
I Grocery Store
Diverse, Sit-bown Restaurants
-1 Nightl e (Bars/Music Venues/Performance Space)
7% Quick/Affordable Lunch Options
6 Convenience Store
3 Coffee Houses/Cafes
3 Electronic Goodsf~ce Supply
Other (Living, Lab, Office Space)
Apparel Stoes-
511daky Food/Liquor Store
2 Hair/Nail Salon
Publc Se_ _s y_ I y dPublic
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Af fordabl e Gyms
1% Personal Services (Dry Cleaning, Doggie Day Care)
1uv yJ S b 05 conducted by t h I'ntaC
Square Initiative. This survey summarized aranking for desired programs in Kendal Squareirea.
A drugstore was the most desired retail accord-ng to the Customer Intercept Survey. The largedaytime population of the area would supply thenumber of customers needed to support such a
lsiness.[he second most-desired retail was a grocerystore, which is a key amenity to create a more;omplete neighborhood. There is insufficientdemand for a traditional supermarket due to thepresence of competitors nearby.
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P rogram Development
To further define the constrains of the game,each program block is categorized into different groups based on their size and functions.
Office
Retail space
Cafe / restaurant
COMMUNITYLandscape
Public lobby
Lecture room
MIT Classroom
Student service
Restroom
MUSEUM Exhibition space
Art gallery
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Gaming Interfaceor (an Iag k o th conter of pl m bsod n huwr preference. Each program is color coded anid comes
in different modular sizes.This responsive program also communicates with user by displaying a interactive diagram at the lower right corner. This
diagram informs each user the trade offs arid impacts to the surrounding environment and budget of their proposal.The game also follows zoning regulations by taking total Gross Floor Area and height into consideration.
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Model Exportr ru I be alutomict c-ily recorded an Ixrted ac 0BJ mang flcje
So they can be used for later analysis.
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PARTICIPATORY PLATFORM
Pattern extraction 28-32
Paterrn extr ct on 37-38
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1stDiagrammatic analysis penrqornation
1stRegeneration
2ndR e (r- 1, n1iza IT i "n
2ndPpgeneration
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User's input
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PARTICIPATORY PLATFORM
Image platform development 34-36
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Image Comparison Platformhe ~ 0 -I dse 'I qu sMon IdK u r O l t iding rm terials
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Image Comparison PlatformI he saorm o sk user [c vote Wn ieir lavorite archi tectural massing torrn / style
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Background research -7-
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PARTICIPATORY PLATFORM
attern exc 2-3
Pattern extraction 37-38
Desi:n crm data 40-41Data Validatn 43-50
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INTRODUi TJ0Backgr ond ref ac e 7-Project overview I2-is
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Pattern e xtractcn 2 -3
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DESIGN
Data Validation 43-50
Data Validationn d pi )d elf evaluate the effectiveness of the platform. A data validation procedure was
required to find out whether the final design respond to user's desire.The final design was taken back to the platform for user reevaluation against other images that users has
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Data ValidationThe s ond matidaIos th omprion test t u ;u pris resu it.
The top ranked material Ioss the comparison test. In stead, the new
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Testing Failure
Do public have self-consciousness when it comes to aestheticDo public know what they really like?
The experiment was setup to compare images with isolated aesthetic properties. User were asked to
compare only one element of building at a time. But during that process, some might be distracted byother details in the image, like the building context, color of the sky or even the resolution of image. These
factors caused inconsistency in data result. Not even mentioning participant's personal instability factors,like weather, emotion or health condition might have affected their ability to make a consistent judgment.In order to eliminate these distractions, we need more thorough studies of how to extract public aesthet-
ic. Most users can not name their favorite architecture before they begin the experiment. But during the
image comparison test, everyone was able to give an answer within a relative short time. The experiment
setup helped user to organize their internal aesthetic logic, so they were able to make a final judgment.The revaluation of the platform proved the system functions as it was intended for the most part. But the
inconsistent final result also exposed the weakness of the system.
Perhaps the solutions lies in a more sophisticated technology that can interact with users to extract moreaccurate data. Imagine in the near future, the experiment will take place in ideal virtual environmentwhere distraction is limited to minimum. Users can wear VR goggle to explore their preference in a fully
immersed virtual architectural environment. Then, they would be able to make a much more accuratedecision. Such technological intervention should be able to help architects finding out the true desire of
public, to extract preferences that public don't even realize they have.
Today, we are one step closer to this goal. This project revolutionized participatory approach bycrowdsourcing mass data and transform them into a tangible design, at the same time, raised newchallenges to enhance data accuracy through educating public. Testing failure has a irreplaceablerole in this process of discovering new frontier, and it is our new role as an architect, to be responsi-ble and in charge of generating a more democratic and educating design process.