Ubiquitous technologies and the design of places for meaningful human encounter
Research team
Research team
Overview
Description
1 November 2006 - 1 November 2008
Meetings are now less constrained to offices, shops and fixed points of service, and can take place in a range of environments, including branded places: coffee houses, transportation hubs, customised meeting places, and informal, locally-branded spaces. People are drawn to places that have particular meanings as loci of human encounter. Communications technologies are implicated in this move into the variegated brandscape. We gather evidence for these assertions about the rise of branded meeting places, examine the suitability of branded spaces for human encounters (eg meetings amongst business associates, between service providers and clients), and develop strategies for improving the technologies that support them. In the process we will critically examine and analyse branded spaces, theories about their formation, and how they operate as loci of human encounter. Key Research Team Richard Coyne Architecture: School of Arts, Culture and Environment Robin Williams Research Centre for Social Sciences James Stewart Research Centre for Social Sciences Mark Wright Division of Informatics Funded by AHRC/EPSRC
Researchers: Dr James Stewart; Prof Robin Williams
Contact: Richard Coyne