Research
The lab investigates critical challenges in the built environment, examining how emerging technologies shape spatial perception, cognition, and human behavior.
Grounded in the understanding that the intelligence of a place emerges from the interplay between individuals, their environments, and the technologies they engage with, the lab explores how digital tools and infrastructures augment spatial experience and collective interaction.
The lab’s research focuses on two key areas:
- Designing Hybrid and Immersive Experiences
- Understanding the Impact of Emerging Technologies
By researching, designing, and prototyping responsive environments, the lab moves beyond technologically-deterministic applications. Instead, it seeks to create contextually rich, behaviorally attuned experiences that foster deeper connections between people, technology, and place, ultimately shaping more intuitive, inclusive, and engaging built environments.
Current Research Areas
1. Designing Hybrid and Immersive Experiences
The lab explores the interaction between the physical and digital through installations, prototyping, and experimentation with emerging technologies—from real-time sensing to augmented and immersive media. By integrating multi-sensory feedback, adaptive systems, and embodied interaction, it investigates how these approaches can create more intuitive, responsive, and emotionally resonant spatial experiences.
2. Understanding the Impact of Emerging Technologies
Examining how new technologies influence both the design process and the lived experience, the lab studies how situated technologies mediate interactions, alter movement patterns, and transform the way individuals and communities navigate and interpret space. Using biometric technologies, the lab also investigates physiological and behavioral responses to built environments, gaining deeper insights into human perception, attention, and emotional engagement. This research informs the development of more adaptive and human-centered design methods and strategies.s
RESEARCH PROJECTS
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Future of Air Travel
Future of Air Travel The “Future of Air Travel” initiative is a research project focused on exploring how advancements in […]
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Future of Mobility
Future Mobility The “Future of Mobility” research project at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University. The initiative […]
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Real Cities Bergamo 2035
REAL Cities | Bergamo 2035 The “REAL Cities | Bergamo 2035” research and teaching initiative is a multi-tier, multi-year academic collaboration […]
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ALivE
ALivE ALivE is a unique multi-disciplinary collaboration between the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University’s Adaptive Material […]