An Improvisation-Based Model for Urban Interaction Design

Abstract

This chapter articulates four positions for an improvisation-based model of urban interactions in today's hybrid city environments. It builds upon the previous chapters by identifying the interactions in and with urban responsive environments and the art of improvisation as fundamentally related topics of investigation. From there, the chapter proposes to identify four key positions that are recurrent in different types of improvisation and that together point toward a foundational model for urban interaction design. These are: open beginnings, timing and agency, understanding in action, and unexpected interactions. These four positions provide a framework by which responsive systems and environments in the context of the hybrid city might be more systematically understood and developed.