Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience (DRSR)

The Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience (DRSR) project explores rhythm as a new methodology for policy-making, which aims to enhance the sharing of culture and increase the social resilience of neighbourhoods. This project investigates how people process their life experiences within cities and examines how these experiences are increasingly being documented with urban data. Through the participation of residents, civil servants and creative industries, we are able to analyse physical and digital data rhythms in Amsterdam.

Societal challenge: Sustainability Disciplinary perspective: People Disciplinary perspective: Organisation

By integrating ethnographic and observational research methods with urban data analyses we aim to develop a methodology that increases the understanding of what city rhythms are. A design approach is necessary to merge these disciplines together and create a framework that supports rhythm-based policy-making. And while it’s true that more data is becoming available on the subject, a framework connecting data analytics to meaningful interactions in policy-making is still missing.

This project aims to develop methods that bring people (e.g. neighbourhood residents, police, civil servants, designers, creative industries, etc.) together and encourage dialogue and deliberation around rhythm analyses. An online platform has been created specifically to house our research and enable stakeholders to participate in the project.

Through the DRSR project, we will combine digital urban data with rhythm analysis to create a methodology that enables new design interventions in neighbourhoods and supports policy development. Results from our research will contribute to the increased collaboration between residents, researchers, civil servants and urban decision makers.