Narrative spatial analytics (NSA) in urban landscape research and design

Abstract

This research investigates the condition of unbuilt spaces in urban areas that reside in the interim between previous use and not-yet-decided new development. These unbuilt spaces are considered as valuable in the context of urban landscape. In order to acknowledge the character and quality of unbuilt spaces, design and planning procedures need to incorporate new interpretative techniques. The proposed NSA method integrates three research-by-design techniques that enable landscape researchers/designers to broaden the scope of disciplinary research practice. The conducted research is interdisciplinary and stands in the intersection of two research fields in the context of scale—urban planning and architectural design. The aim of this research is to propose the new methodological apparatus, which offers a holistic view on the notion of territory in regard to the notion of scale. The analysis takes the position that small-scale architectural design procedures and methods also apply to the scale of the landscape—territory. The proposed method—Narrative Spatial Analytics (NSA)—is based on simultaneous design procedures in opposing scales, assuming the overall significance of simultaneous understanding of the territory and the site.