The Networked Public Space (NPS) project investigates how "smart" technologies and systems can be humanely integrated into public space. NPS seeks to facilitate social interaction and human development rather than focus on infrastructural efficiencies. To do so, we define "networked public space" not just as public space with embedded network and sensor technologies, but an interactive network of people, places, and technologies.

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Funded by the University of Virginia Strategic Investment Fund, NPS is a collaborative of designers, planners, engineers, social scientists, and community stakeholders. NPS addresses:

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• Planning and design of networked public spaces;

• The human experience of being in a networked public space;

• Supporting social, political, and technical action based on open data and analysis.

 

NPS works with resident and institutional stakeholder groups to develop processes and plans for the implementation of flexible, responsive architectures and infrastructures in local public spaces. The Ostenda illuminata prototype of networked public space facilitates integration of sensors within public spaces to help local communities understand environmental conditions - air pollution, noise level, CO2 levels, motion, occupancy, light intensity. As a research project of the UVA Next Cities Institute (NCI), our integrated approach targets not only the technical opportunities of sensor technologies, but also envisions and establishes the materiality and humanity of public spaces.