1 Bringing Urban Design Site to Studio by using a Remote Surveillance Camera Antti Juustila, Tanja Kangas, Toni Räisänen, Kari Kuutti University of Oulu, Departement of Information Processing Science P.O. Box 3000, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Finland {antti.juustila, tanja.m.kangas, toni.raisanen, kari.kuutti} @oulu.fi Leena Soudunsaari University of Oulu, Department of Architecture Planning and Urban Design P.O.Box 4100, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Finland Leena.Soudunsaari@oulu.fi ABSTRACT In architectural design, an architect understands the importance of the environment in the design. Especially in the city, where the changes in the built and natural environment are rapid and in the proximity, the site in relation to the design is paramount. Usually architects leave their studios to visit the building site in order to understand the amalgamation of the building to its environment. In this paper we present an experiment where the connection between the studio and the site is further strengthened by using remote surveillance cameras, a media database and projection technology. Using these technologies the site was brought in to the studio to gain additional understanding on how the changes particularly in the natural environment (lightning, weather, times of day and even the annual rhythm) affect the experience of the building site. Also the fitting of the new building to the existing environment could be analyzed. Author Keywords Architectural design, visualization, design studio, surveillance camera, design research, technology support for design. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous. INTRODUCTION The architectural and urban planning has always had a strong visual tradition. Architects’ communication about the urban problems and their solutions usually bases on visual material. According to Langendorf [4] understanding complex information about planning and design may be greatly extended if the information is visualized. Visualization also helps to communicate with different participants during the planning process. Designing can be understood as an interactive process, where the information arising from different stages (e.g. survey, analysis, concept, final design) must be tested against facts, goals and diverse issues. There must be a possibility to go back and forth between the planning stages as the designing process is cyclical. [2] Challenges in design can be seen as ”wicked problems”, the solutions are found during the progression of the design process. [6]. Architectural design is dependent on the building site, the sense of the place, “genius loci”. The local elements, such as landscape, topography, vegetation, built environment and cultural aspects can be examined by the means of visual material. For example, a view seen from a photograph could be a starting point for the building design – to its dimensioning and scale. The experiment studies new practices of design research, related to use of information technology in supporting communication between the users, designers and different fields of expertise in design. As the designers and users of a space do not necessarily speak the same (professional) language, we investigate how the users can – in a meaningful way – participate in the design of the space. In this experiment, the studio and the site and the interplay of the two in design are in focus. We aim to study what kind of information designers gather from the field (the site) and how this information is used in the studio. Our goal is to study whether technologies such as distributed systems, virtual models and simulations can support a more user centric design, and which properties of these technologies are important in this context.