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Staff Profile

Dr Alexander Wilson

Director of Planning & Urban Design

Background

I am a lecturer in the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape. My research explores how technology can create the means for an open dialogue around place, and how through these technologies, more meaningful discussions can happen about the future of cities.


My projects include: ChangeExplorer, a smart watch application to support citizen feedback, to investigate the extent to which digital wearables can support in-situ participation with planning proposals; and JigsAudio, a tangible situated device that was developed and deployed nationally and internationally with over 1,500 people to encourage expressive and creative discussion of places through drawing and talking. 


My research sits at the intersection of digital technology, design, human–computer interaction and town planning, with a focus on alternative and enhanced tools and methods for participation in planning. These tools and methods include pervasive and wearable computing systems, alongside audio, visual and social media in novel interactive systems. Through this I explore how technologies can be designed, developed and evaluated within real world settings, with the aim of understanding the implications of these for citizen engagement and planning practice.


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Research

Google Scholar


AHRC Mission Awards, Green Corridors North East

GCNE aims to develop new co-created arts- and humanities-led research practices that will contribute significantly to the transformative regeneration of green corridors in the UK and beyond. More information from UKRI & BBC News.


Acid Attacks in North East England: A Victim-Centred Perspective 

National Institute for Health Research, ARC North East & North Cumbria

The project’s aim is to explore victim-centred experiences and perspectives of acid attacks and begin to explore how they can be accommodated within established care practices and pathways.


Understanding the Implications of Technology-Enabled Urban Planning Participation for Practice

Funded by the ESRC, the key objectives of the fellowship are to: enhance my track-record of high-quality publications in the social sciences and consolidate my doctoral research; develop key pathways to impact through targeted engagement with professional audiences; and disseminate my findings at national and international conferences.


Metro Futures

Metro Futures is a project that co-designed, at scale, the future of the Metro with Nexus (Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive), Stadler (Swiss train manufacturer) and Open Lab to engage people on their design preferences.


Mapping Gateshead

‘Mapping Gateshead’ is a five-month project that surveys and critically re-imagines creative and cultural activity in Gateshead through three interactive online workshops.


Tackling uncertainty across the centuries: medievals and moderns in conversation

This research project will bring together historical understanding, social science research, and interaction design within a model of community co-production to ask how our medieval churches can help tackle longstanding issues of uncertainty in rural life.

Teaching

I lead the following modules:


TCP3053: Development Management

This module seeks to develop students’ knowledge of Development Management including knowledge of planning law, institutional frameworks, decision-making and the processes to which planners must adhere in their work.


TCP2031: Digital Civics - Exploring Opportunities in Digital Public Engagement

In this module, students can research and design a service concept for digital public engagement.


APL1003: Planning Contexts

This module introduces the hybridity of the planning context - political, economic, legal, others, and reflects on how planning is an expression of these different dimensions, and articulates its purposes utilising these framings.

Publications