House of Architecture, New Technology and Design

In June 2009 The Mayor’s Office in Aarhus took the first steps towards a possible House of Architecture and Design (Arkitektur, Ny teknologi og Design = AND huset) Seismonaut contributed to the official report published by a think tank chaired by the Mayor, Nicolai Wammen. The report outlines opportunities and requirements for a future initiative, which may become an international icon.

Assignment

In the work proces the think tank realized, that architecture and design is too narrow a scope; additional focus on new technology is essential. While the think tank had a good understanding of architecture and design, new technology was unmapped territory. Seismonaut was therefore asked to produce a map answering the question:

What requirements and priorities does the industry around new technology have in relation to the establishment of a House of Architecture and Design?

Methodology

To answer the question we first set out to define new technology in a context of architecture and design. With input from external experts we ended up defining new technologies as:

Technologies and media currently undergoing rapid development and which are considered likely to add to product and process innovation within architecture and design.

As a framework for the mapping we developed a simple model segmenting new technologies into Energy, Advanced Materials (including nano technology), Pervasive Computing and New Media and applying various application perspectives such as Health and Sustainability on each segment. With this model we went on to identify relevant companies and institutions in the area of Århus.

Given time constraints a large survey was not an option. Instead we set up intense workshops with select researchers, developers and manufacturers of the relevant technologies. We posed a range of questions on issues such as possible themes to be covered by the AND house, organisation and funding of the house, expected degree of participation etc. and asked the groups to attempt to reach some sort of consensus. We used techniques from board games to facilitate the process. The workhops mixed creativity with critical analysis and were extremely productive.

Extracting key issues from the workshop we were able to produce a report with recommendations and requirements for the AND house as seen from the New Tech industry.

Customer Value

We provided – with very short notice – our client with a context specific workable definition of the term New Technology, a framework and a preliminary mapping of research and industry in the Århus area. Our work added the New Tech perspective to the work of the think tank and as the AND initiative progresses, these deliverables will be of significant value when more detailed user requirements are compiled and applied in the shaping of the AND house concept. The conclusions from our workshops have been written into the final report with recommendations from the think tank. This report provides guidelines for the Municipality of Århus on how to move forward with the initiative – now with added emphasis on New Technology.

About the Client

The Municipality of Århus governs the second largest city in Denmark. The Mayor’s Office consists of 150 people who manage central tasks within the Municipality of Århus regarding political service, economy, HR, law, IT and the development of the business environment and city infrastructure.

For more information about this case, please contact Peter Dreyer, peter@seismonaut.com or 21457783