The Infrastructure Space research group comprises senior academics, specialists and MArch students. Our research is concerned with the context that supports physical and digital infrastructures. Our methodology explores and develops approaches to mapping that reveal crosscutting insights into the operation and performance of space and place. These findings are used to explore novel approaches to design which tackle multi-dimensional problems and to reimagine urban limits in addition to human interaction with place and space.
Generated from a starting point that considers Cornwall as a contemporary urban space within a rural context, this work comprises exploratory mappings that compare and spatially represent publicly available, existing data sets to identify opportunities and challenges for the county. Distance and physical connectivity provide challenges within Cornwall, yet today’s digital communication and applications technologies offer opportunities to reimagine how communities can thrive when supported within wider and more responsive real and virtual networks.
With an overarching goal to understand the context that supports healthcare in the UK, focussing on Cornwall as a place, this work considers existing and potential relationships between physical and digital infrastructures. It explores the potential of creating intertwined relationships between these infrastructures and the spaces they define and inhabit to elevate performance and enhance health provision in the region. The research embeds architectural understanding of human interaction with place and space. This is developed through critically testing, intersecting, representing and refining findings produced by analysis of data sets, supported by targeted field visits within four key themes:
- Networks and Connectivity
- Demographics and Economy
- Energy and Power
- Health and Lifestyle
Data Mapping Cornwall provides a summary of this spatial investigation of Cornwall, conducted by a large team of academics, experts and postgraduate students between September 2016 and March 2017.