Moving City

"Moving City: The Electronic Guidebook"
Jonathan Hale, Institute of Architecture
Holger Schnadelbach, School of Computer Sciences

Project summary:
"Moving City" is the latest phase in a series of developments emerging from a teaching project which took place in the year 2000 at the University of Nottingham. Originally titled “Architecture Exposed: New Ideas for Exhibiting the Built Environment”, the work was initially exhibited at the RIBA Architecture Gallery in March 2000. The project set out to challenge the conventional methods of presenting exhibitions about architecture through photographs and drawings shown inside a gallery. This format often prevents a proper understanding of three-dimensional space due to its reliance on visual communication alone. The project began by literally taking the exhibition outside onto the street, combining the full sensory experience of real spaces with the kind of analytical and interpretive information normally offered by a museum or gallery setting.

An earlier version entitled 'Spectacular Spaces' (shown at Architecture Week 2002) used a printed guidebook to provide illustrations of student design projects, together with a map and a written commentary. This formed a 'portable exhibition', with participants able to visit the actual sites used for the projects around the centre of Nottingham. This format also has the potential to be used to present alternative guided walks such as historic architectural landmarks, or current proposals for new urban and regional developments..

For Architecture Week 2003 the printed guide was developed into a more flexible and re-usable electronic version - a hand-held computer or ‘Personal Digital Assistant’ (PDA). This device is able to present more dynamic information, such as moving images, slideshows, animated text, sound and video. With the support of the newly created Architecture and Built Environment Centre for the East Midlands (‘Opun’) and Nottingham Development Enterprise among others, it is intended that this project will be developed further as a tool for future exhibitions and events. Working in collaboration with the School of Computer Sciences at the University of Nottingham, further refinements will also be incorporated, including ‘GPS’ satellite tracking to trigger information automatically according to the viewer’s location in the city, and interactive features such as feedback forms or questionnaires to gather public opinion on major new development projects around the region.

Click here to see a web-browser version of the full PDA guided tour.

Click here to obtain a PDF version of the "Moving City" project description.