Augmented Spaces If walls could talk Holly Chan 1 , Andre Brown 2 , Tane Moleta 3 , Marc Aurel Schnabel 4 1,2,3,4 Victoria University of Wellington, NZ 1 hollyvchan@gmail.com 2,3,4 {andre.brown|tane.moleta|marcaurel.schnabel}@vuw.ac.nz This paper explores the development of Augmented Spaces that involve embedding within the built environment, digitally responsive recognition of human presence. Contemporary digital media provides the opportunity to enhance physical space with the property of immediate interaction, which results in a high level of user engagement and responsivenenss. Through the addition of digital media, emotional and reflective value can be added to the built form. If space is designed to be reactive, rather than passive, a dialogue can be established between the user/inhabitant and the environment. We report on the establishment and analysis of a set of prototype digital interventions in urban space that react to human presence. One is in a building threshold space; one an urban street. We describe the development of a digital particle system with two inputs; the first being the geometry that generates the particles and the second being the geometry that displaces the particles. The research goals that we report on are driven by three over-riding response criteria, Visceral, Behavioural and Reflective. Keywords: augmented space, reactive, synesthetic PROBLEM STATEMENT Humans form meaningful connections with the built environment through the physical and social interac- tions within the spaces they inhabit. The built form has been “created for as long as at least three hun- dred thousand years, and strikingly even in the ear- liest and simplest forms they were interactive and multi-functional” (Alavi, et al., 2016). On a daily basis, society is in constant dialogue with the built environ- ment. This dialogue allows us to alter the parameters of the space we occupy; by turning on a light switch, opening a window, or rearranging the furniture, we are affecting and altering our surroundings. These daily affordances give us control to create a preferred level of subjective comfort; creating physical, sensory or emotional pleasure in the spaces we occupy. Over the last three decades, our world has be- come increasingly augmented by digital technology and information. In the past, technology was fixed to a particular location, and its effects were limited to specific spaces: the office, the television, the cin- ema. With the advancements of mobile phones, dig- VR, AR and interactive visualization - Volume 2 - eCAADe 39 | 575