Place Research Seminar - AI as a communication enabler for place management : a case study from temporary architecture and Nepal
Thursday 27th March 2025 | 15:30 - 17:00
3.18, Business School, Manchester Metropolitan University, Lyceum Pl, Manchester M15 6BY
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This seminar explores how attention to language using AI tools can facilitate place management. It draws insight from a recent research project that considered how UK temporary architecture projects could inform the delivery of disaster recovery temporary settlements in Nepal. A collaboration between Manchester School of Architecture and R&D company Visioning Lab working with the Red Cross Nepal and Aston University on disaster recovery training workshops revealed the importance of semantics particularly across multilingual contexts and cultures. It also identified how Western assumptions about place impact on the tools and materials provided to the Global South. The project focused on how a ChatGPT AI tool could be used as a rapid interpreter of language and meaning to facilitate communication and how this could support multiple place-making scenarios.
We invite place-making academics and specialists to three short presentations from the project team followed by a break and then a 'reply' from place-making practitioners on how this research is relevant for their contexts.
Speakers
15:00 - 15:30
Arrival, refreshments
An introductory message from Mona Aryal at Red Cross Nepal will emphasise the need for international collaboration and creative use of technology in the development of temporary settlements.
Professor Stephen Walker, Manchester School of Architecture on temporary architecture as a conceptual frame for impermanent structures and how their needs differ
Dr Luciana Lang, Anthropologist, University of Manchester on practitioners working with temporary structures from across both disaster and 'peacetime' contexts and how assumptions impede cross-learning and collaboration
Dr Jessica Symons with Dr Mengmeng Tan on the potential and challenges in using AI tools to facilitate multilingual understanding in the development of temporary structures
Peter Griffiths, Global Urban Futurist & UKI Lead, BABLE Smart Cities
17:00
Close and discussion