This interdisciplinary autonomous interface (MAR) was developed with governmental support of The Technological Agency of the Czech Republic as a part of Program for support of applied research in social sciences and humanities, experimental development and innovations (ÉTA) as a part of Interdisciplinary design of urban development, reg. no. TL01000025. The project  bearer is INESAN (Institute for evaluations and social analysis).

About the project

Title: Interdisciplinary design of urban development

number TL01000025

Aim of this project is development of software application-interdisciplinary autonomous interface (software MAR) using large database analysed by an algorithm enabling machine learning. The purpose of the project is to create a virtual space where three thematic areas, e.g. natural sciences/landscape, social and urbanistic/architectural converge and produce data, presented for example in the form of statistics, maps and charts.

The resulting software-interdisciplinary autonomous interface (MAR) enables municipalities to generate outcomes gathered through interdisciplinary approach, that will be readily applicable in processes of complex developmental, strategical and community planning, shaping visions of development of territorial units or tackling problems of towns and cities with tailored solutions. Application of the project’s results contribute to smart urbanism and will have impact on the quality of environment and life in the city.

Beneficiary: INESAN (Institute for evaluations and social analysis)

Provider: The Technological Agency of the Czech Republic

Project manager: Helena Humňalová, MSc. / Mgr. Linda Kovářová, Ph.D.

Members of the team: Ing. Jana Menšíková, Mgr. Jan Šturma, Ing. Arch. Ivo Pavlík, Mgr. Adam Bedřich, Ing. Jan Zivčák

Timescale: 04/2018 – 05/2021

Planned results: software (results R), interdisciplinary reports (O)

Other resluts:

• scholarly article
• popularization articles
• manual
• tutorial
• examples of good and not so good practice

Our vision

Our aim is to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the whole structure of urban and rural settlements, enhancing their long-term sustainable development and increasing the quality of life of local communities.

The sprawling urban spaces are current global trend. It contains a lot of problems, from insufficient infrastructure, devastation of nature, unregulated growth of suburban areas, or likelihood of deterioration of social conditions. The development of towns and cities constitute a complex process in a dire need of long-term vision, use of adequate planning tools; a process which essentially ought to be interidisciplinary.

Urbanization is not  necessarily a negative phenomenon when dealt with sensitively, with respect to shared values and with positive, long-term sustainable strategy. Our multidisciplinary method provides a robust tool able to achieve that goal.

The life in a suburbia is often strikingly different from a shiny catalog presentations and idealistic visualizations of architectural studios. Centers, pubs and shops are far distant, shady parks or even grown trees are absent in the summer heat and proclaimed “virgin nature” is in reality a thick oil-seed rape field without a single walking path.

Does it sounds familiar to you? Is it a necessary evil of all new development? Is it enough to just reside and be thankful for that?

We argue that it is decisively not necessary. Already existing suburbs can be reshaped and the new ones can be planned in better way.

How do we work?

We approach urban development from an interdisciplinary perspective, which stands for an intersection of social geography, architecture and urbanism, geobotanics, social and cultural anthropology, history, archaeology or economy. Methods used by each of these disciplines stay true to their essence. Consequently they are connected with each other by means of an interdisciplinary interpretative method.

What is different about our approach?

By means of the interdisciplinary interpretative method we connect different disciplines such as anthropology and geobotanics. We use neural networks, geographical information systems (GIS) and statistical analysis to examine and scrutinize publicly available data and data gathered in the field through physical mapping in the area.

We offer

1. Software MAR
Open access software MAR (QGIS) supplied with our plugin primarily offers better understanding of the territorial unit in a broader context and leads to smart urbanism. The outcomes may serve as an objective sources of information for development of strategic planning and conceptual materials, as well as a tool for searching potential solutions of specific problems that cities face.

 find download link below

2. Interdisciplinary research and analysis
Our interdisciplinary research is able to process complex set of problems and identify links, where other “mono-disciplinary” researches often fall short. We offer alternative solutions in seemingly conflicting situations, such as the need for a new housing development while retaining high quality of local natural environment. Our analysis is twofold – the first level Is of general nature and deals only with publicly accessible data sets. The second level contains an intensive fieldwork. Finally we provide an analysis based on the detailed synthesis of data from fieldwork and publicly accessible data sets. Final product of our survey, besides the analysis itself, is a series of graphs, maps and visualizations of proposed solutions of specific places illustrating our findings.

for more information contact INESAN

3. Architectural analysis and fast sketches
Architectural studio City Upgrade is part of our team. Together we offer urbanistic-architectural studies and suggestions for changes in public space. We also offer a sketch analysis – a primary simple visual proposition of an appropriate disentanglement of the situation, presenting different urbanistic options. Architectural study is further more detailed and complex way of dealing with the given territorial unit, completed with an analysis of current situation.

for more information contact INESAN

Practice

Research