C. Nevejan, P. Sefkatli, S. Cunningham, City Rhythm : Logbook of an Exploration, Delft University of Technology, Delft-Amsterdam, 2018, 90 p.
Rhythm is fundamental to life. Rhythm can be perceived in the movement of
the sun, the moon and the stars. Rhythm makes our hearts tick and defines
our breath, in and out. And even the smallest particle in a microbe is part of
rhythmic movements. Rhythm in activities is important for culture, for religion,
and for sports, schools and hospitals for example. Yet in social situations, social
analyses and in social policymaking, rhythm is not considered as a space of
analyses or a space of design.
City Rhythm explores the potential of using rhythm analyses in the physical world and related data domain for enhancing social safety in neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. Rhythm in the physical world happens both in space as well as in time. Rhythm in data can connect to location (instead of persons), thus circumventing the issue of privacy. However, because the data addresses specific times and places, nonetheless the data still addresses significant social issues.
Founded in the social sciences, humanities, arts and computer science, the
interdisciplinary research team also includes civil servants of six cities in the
Netherlands who have engaged throughout the research. With the help of
students, nine case studies are carried out.
Building upon methodologies from the social sciences and architecture, it
is found that in seven cases rhythm analyses identified new design solution
spaces. As a result, a methodology for doing rhythm analyses in the physical
world is developed. More theoretical and artistic explorations are carried out.
These enable the bridging of experience and insight from rhythm analyses to the
data world.
The interdisciplinary research team formulates the basic concept and
terminology for the City Rhythm Data Model (CRDM). This consists of beats,
base and street rhythms. Beats are defined by the state of specific area at a
specific moment in time, As an example of a state, a street might have lots of
cars, few cars, or no cars at all. Street rhythms show significant transitions over
time for the specific area. The base rhythm of an area is defined by comparison
to other areas. These derived rhythms are like a musical meter. In this specific
context, individual street rhythms develop. Street rhythms represent a variation
around a few specific themes.
The City Rhythm Data Model (CRDM), based on mixtures of hidden Markov
models, is built and run with open and linked data from the Central Bureau for
Statistics (CBS) of the Netherlands. Areas can be represented using sizes in
different datasets. City Rhythm worked with areas of 500 by 500 meters.
The choice of datasets is defined by mapping upon the YUTPA framework which
indicates trade-offs for trust. In the validation session of the City Rhythm Data
Model it is concluded that the general experience of social safety of specific
areas is reflected in CRDM base rhythms. For being able to understand which
specific data constitute a beat (or “state”) and for understanding specific street
rhythms, further research is necessary. In conclusion to the one year exploratory
study, City Rhythm indicates that rhythm analyses, in the physical world as well
as in the related data domain, offer a potential new approach for policymaking.
Principle Investigator : Caroline Nevejan (TU Delft / UvA) – PhD Candidate : Pinar Sefkatli (TU Delft / UvA) – Data Team Director : Scott Cunningham (TU Delft)