We should aim to build more joyful, playful, and immersive urban design. There is no reason why the places we live in and interact with every day cannot give us as much joy as the places we travel to on vacations. There are many systematic reasons why so many of our public spaces fall short of their potential, but I believe we need to shed the notion that it has to be this way.

This is not just about changing our cities to allow more imaginative urban design, but also about injecting the principles of walkability and placemaking into every step of how we plan and develop our cities. We must also build new generation of third places that bring together people from different walks of life. Libraries must be prioritized again, but we must also promote new “palaces for the people”.

I started developing MIX in an effort to explore this problem. MIX is an iOS app that uses geospatial augmented reality to create multi-user, shared experiences in public spaces. It’s just the start of my exploration into how we can use technology and spatial interfaces to innovate our urban design and placemaking.

I have been immensely inspired by Fábio Duarte’s book Urban Play, and gained a whole new appreciation for what is possible while auditing he and James Scott’s class on technology in the built environment this past semester. It would be a great opportunity to continue to learn from Professor Duarte and to help contribute to the work he and the others are doing at the Senseable City Lab.