Supernormal - An evidence-based design approach for the train station of Elmshorn
Design Studio, Winter 2021/22
In this design studio we apply an evidence based design workflow for a human-centered new train station of Elmshorn.
Welcome to our this years design studio! In this studio we will design a train station for the supernormal city of Elmshorn. Thereby we apply a supernormal procedure, called Evidence Based Design. This means, that we not only design the train station, but we will test it using scientific methods. Supernormal, isn't it? Check out the following introduction slides to get to know more about the project:
Course Description
Buildings are made for humans. So, the design of buildings requires architects to anticipate how humans will experience and behave in the planned environment. However, this is not an easy task, due to the vast amount of influencing factors coming from the physical environment (such as geometry, light, color) and from the users themselves (different social backgrounds, abilities, expectations, age, etc.). This challenges the design of buildings and results in the fact that even architecturally remarkable buildings, are sometimes hard to understand for building users. We might ask, can’t science support designers here?
The role of science in design can be seen in identifying regularities in natural phenomena that can be used in the definition of building parameters. Whereas physical sciences found their way into the design of buildings (such as structural and thermal behaviour), sciences dealing with human behaviour and emotions (e.g. environmental psychology) are widely lacking such an integration.
In this project we will try to bridge the gap between architectural design and environmental psychology. Therefore, we first will learn how to evaluate built environments in terms of human-centred aspects such as wayfinding, social interaction and spatial experience. Second we will develop a design strategy that anticipates the ‘human-perspective’ in the creation of spaces. As a case we will use the design of the new train station for the city of Elmshorn.
After your building designs are created, we will test them in a Virtual Reality simulation using Oculus Rift. Following a ‘peer evaluation’ (everyone is evaluating the designs of the others), by taking eye-level perspective of a potential building user, the critics and comments are used to revise the design.
The project is accompanied by two seminars: “Computational Methods for User-Centered Architectural Design” and “Parametric Building Information Modeling”, which are mandatory for this project.
--> Results from last semesters
Study program: Architecture, Media Architecture
Credits: 12 ECTS (+ 6 ECTS accompanying seminars)
Lecturer: Vertr.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sven Schneider, M.Sc. Olaf Kammler
Date and Place: Thursday, 9:15 - 16:45, online