Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C513878/1
Title:	Orienting The Future: Design Strategies For Non-Place
Principal Investigator:	Coyne, Professor RD
Other Investigators:	Davenport, Professor E Jacobs, Professor JM Klein, Professor EH Williams, Professor RA Cairns, Professor S
Researcher Co-Investigators:	Dr J Stewart
Project Partners:
Department:	Architecture
Organisation:	University of Edinburgh
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 January 2005	Ends:	31 March 2006	Value (£):	51,575
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Construction Ops & Management
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Construction
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
This Cluster brings together designers and scholars to discuss and develop resources in relation to a specific contemporary design problem: making ordinary urban spaces ('non-places') more accessible, friendly and useable. We experience non-places routinely, they include urban environments like airports, supermarkets, motorways, hotels, offices. What is distinctive about non-places? Why are they relevant to design?When we ordinarily think of place, we think of localities with which we are familiar and in which we can easily find our way. We come to feel this by way of what others tell us (e.g. tips about where the best shops are), as well as knowledge we build up from our own experience (e.g. that is a bad route because of the hill). In contrast, we do not have lots of prior cultural knowledge about non-places. They are generic spaces we only pass through (as customers, travellers, clients. etc) and are devoid of some of the normal cues we might rely upon for knowing how to get from one point to another (e.g. where the exit is) or where something is (e.g. where a toilet might be).Finding your way around non-places depends upon the work of design - be it in the form of architecture, the graphic design of signage, or information and virtual technologies. When we move through non-places we are responding to explicit instructions (signs, guides, public address announcements) intended to ensure we are, say, moving in the right direction, passing through the right gates, queuing when required. In short, we depend upon the instructions to feel orientated in non-places.The designers and scholars in this Cluster will think about the ways in which various kinds of design (architecture, digital and wireless technologies, dependable and ubiquitous computing, graphics, performance and visual art) can enhance our everyday experiences of non-places. The aim is to devise new technologies and imagine new social conventions for more individually responsive and inclusive devices for orientation and way-finding. For example, could your i-pod be helping you to find your way around an airport at the same time as it is letting you listen to your favourite music? Could your mobile phone serve as a technology for ensuring your visual disability did not exclude you from moving freely through a supermarket where so much is communicated by way of brand information, aisle labels and price tags? Could wireless technology ensure you take the familiarity you feel in your own neighbourhood with you to standardised non-places?The Cluster will set agendas for the future research and design work needed to ensure that non-places are: accessible to, and can be comprehended by, everyone who may need to use them; safe environments for all; enjoyable and comfortable environments; efficient spaces people can easily find their way through; spaces that encourage new kinds of social relations and activities; integrated more fully with other types of environments in the city. Non-places are a common feature of everyday life, so this Cluster programme is relevant to wider questions of social inclusion, our sense of orientation, empowerment and quality of life in the 21st century city.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.ed.ac.uk