Venice + Augmented Reality

BACKGROUND Venice LOSING THE ORIGINAL It is still one of the most interesting and lovely places in the world. This sanctuary on a lagoon is virtually the same as it was six hundred years ago, which adds to the fascinating character. It is like a huge museum in which every piece of architecture inside is a fabulous exhibit. However, more and more Venetians are leaving the lagoon to settle in other towns. Bar and hotel owners now come from abroad while the town is losing its original inhabitants and becoming more and more globalized. Labor migrants from Asia welcome you and serve you Italian food. You are in Venice. But are you really in Venice?

Architect & Urban Designer      TOP-DOWN URBAN PLANNING

For a long time, architects and planners have played a superior role in the evolution of cities. In most cases they created the plans by focusing on top-down processes, which means that most events in the city take place in those prearranged urban spaces. Maybe it is time to change this.

Information Society      DIGITAL WORLD

The evolving age of information has given rise to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google Earth, which collectively alter our life dramatically.

The Mp3 Experiment SPONTANEOUS EVENT

By chance we saw a project supported by Improv everywhere, in which hundreds of people simultaneously listened to an mp3 clip made by the organizers. Following the instructions in the mp3, participants completed several interesting missions together. There is an invisible cohesion between them which brings the city to life.

AIM & OBJETIVES

Inspired by the aspects mentioned above, we thought about developing an innovative concept that aims to challenge the traditional notion of ‘flexibility’ within architecture and re-invent it for the age of information.

By using each city user’s Smart phone as a sender and receiver of data, an extra data-driven digital city will be created by the powerful computer terminal. And it would be overlaid from a geo-referenced database onto the real city. Then an AR Eyewear for each user would become a location and spatially-aware ‘looking-glass’ for the web-based digital city. Subsequently, it would be the integration of the built and virtual environment, in which the virtual would be seen as an enhancement of reality (it can be switched off), providing an exciting physical/virtual city experience and consequently creating a brand new city spirit of Venice.

STRATEGY & METHODOLOGY FLOATING DYNAMIC CITY TOTEM

It would be the new spirit-symbol of the city, floating on top of it, generated from all the events inside Venice and reflecting the degree of these events in real-time.

PRINCIPLE: Different events take place in the city, people engaging in the same event would define the event zone and geometric coordinates of each event centre. The number of people at the same event and zone together with the vibe created would define the height of the centre, subsequently linking the centre and adjusting to the image of floating

OPEN EVENT FRAMEWORK

Events could be created by anyone and everyone under our “light-touch” regulation. Subsequently, event space will be created, stimulating and supporting the activity, which should be celebrated for its own beauty and bespoke characteristics.

CITY DYNAMICS VISUALISATION

Besides the floating totem, we are able to collect and analyze all spatiotemporal events in the city, thus it may not only improve our understanding of the dynamics of the city, but also provide the possibility for further improvements of this symbiosis.

AUGMENTED CONTENT IN SPACE AND PEOPLE

Such as Pedestrians Pattern, Status, Digital Memory Clip, etc.