PATINA

Project Dates: From October 2010 to October 2013

Staff: Dr. Madeline Balaam, Dr. Martyn Dade-Robertson, (School of Architecture Planning and Landscape)

 

Through the course of their research, scholars are faced with competing relational networks and "ontologies of space" - this being the structural limitations of, and other factors that affect the way users experience, their virtual, physical and imagined research spaces.

The aim of this project is to explore the nature of future research spaces, which we believe should help to enrich the experiences of individual researchers and offer new opportunities to build communities and support the sharing of research activities as well as results. Specifically, we are investigating the architectonics of contemporary research spaces, this being the relationships both perceived and inherent between types of space, and how the structures of ideas and built environments can organise people and objects.

A key aspect of the project is the relationship between the physical and the digital. To this end, we are designing interfaces and infrastructures that enable researchers to have more personal control over physical, virtual and imagined research spaces and greater means of transition between them. The project aims to revolutionise the design of technologies for supporting research.

Throughout the project, we intend to rethink the existing perceptual and tangible barriers between types of research space and provide opportunities for individuals to intuitively access experiential and intellectual knowledge appropriate to their field.

Collaborators: Universities of Bristol, Brighton, Swansea, Southampton, and Greenwich.

Partnerships: Microsoft Research, Nokia Research, Victoria and Albert Museum and The British Library.