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To find the issue I started writing down some questions that I often ponder, when I realised that all of them had three topics in common: MOBILE TECHNOLOGY, HUMAN INTERACTION and PUBLIC SPACES.

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How can we recreate that sense of community that technology is taking away from us?

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We are witnessing more and more a huge transformation of places into what Marc Augé defines as non-places, non-relational places, transition places without an identity. People seem to be increasingly afraid of establishing bonds and relationships with other people and this is affecting our sense of community. We share emotions almost exclusively in a virtual way, and new technologies don't seem to help at all.

From social networks to smart cities, we are moving further and further away from the old, traditional conception of establishing bonds and relationships with other people, a process that COVID19 has only speeded up.

But how is this affecting our relationship with public spaces? How has the way we perceive and experience public spaces changed? And how is this affecting the way we experience social life and the way we connect and build communities?

Thanks to this research I would like to investigate if there is any link between the so-called smart cities and the transformation of human interactions (in public spaces).

BROAD TOPIC: community
WICKED PROBLEM: social isolation

LOCATION: UK

TIME: last 3 years (since COVID19 started)

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I was sure about one thing: I wanted to research in the Design District.
It is an easily accessible place for me that has always fascinated me since I visited it for the first time: a new, technological, constantly evolving place.
But, the more time passed, the more I realised that it was just a transitional place, both the outdoor areas and the indoor ones I had the chance to experience are witnessing the same process: the design district was born with the aim of bring creative people together but from the university itself, to the public spaces, it is nothing more than a transitional space that does not stimulate the creation of bonds between creatives, who see it precisely as a transitional place, to be used for a limited time and then to leave.
The design district is a perfect example of the so-called smart cities, where smart means fast and people never stop to reflect.

Can we create a sense of community within a non-place such as the design district?
And more specifically, can we create a sense of community within Ravensbourne University?

LOCATION: Ravensbourne University
SUBJECT: Master students