Abstract Summary
In the era of the increasing complexity of cities, urban research requires more 'messy' approaches. Interwoven social, technological, and ecological questions would benefit from transdisciplinary, more inclusive knowledge in the urban design and policymaking processes, where different parties, such as designers, scientists, policymakers, companies, community leaders, and citizens, must work together to address various city challenges. The DRSR research project incorporates the social sciences, architecture, and data science disciplines to draw a novel perspective on social issues, combining scientific rigour with social impact. In this research, we focus on togetherness, an often overlooked phenomenon, however crucial in constituting urban life. In order to create an integral method for identifying togetherness between qualitative and quantitative research methods in the urban domain, we developed urban rhythm analyses, which allows for mixed methods analyses. This unique aspect of rhythm analyses contributes to understanding cities as complex systems, including the human experiential dimension of city life. Systems design usually addresses function, structure, and behaviour but seldom considers dynamic experiential aspects, the ground upon which people shape their daily lives. Driven by the societal change brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the DRSR consortium conducted a transdisciplinary study on the rhythms of Amsterdam Zuidoost. The research team's expertise included social science, urban studies, architecture, human AI, municipal administration and policymaking. We developed an intimate understanding of citizens' real lives and experiences by applying sociological methods such as ethnography and participatory research. In other words, the objectives and theoretical lenses of the quantitative study were defined through long-term qualitative engagement. As a result, we developed a method for identifying times and places of togetherness. The offered method, called the "foam index", is based on mobility data of citizens, namely GPS coordinates and timestamps. The 'foam index' measures people's activities in and near buildings: the higher the index, the more 'togetherness' can be expected in a place. Based on the 'foam index' algorithm, we created a tool that allows for identifying 'foams' on a map within specific areas and time periods. This tool might help researchers and decision-makers for additional qualitative inquiries, as well as policy and design interventions based on people's autonomous rhythms in their personal lives. Creating such an integral approach is novel to the current state-of-the-art, where the qualitative research in the built environment remains context-specific, and the pattern analysis of urban data is purely quantitative. Rhythm analyses and the foam index integrate the qualitative and the quantitative, offering a new lens on the urban landscape to which people's experiences are core.
