Jane Philbrick (MDes CC ‘16) with GSD exchange student Simon Zemp (ETH Zurich Architecture MSc ’15) performed collaborative research titled, “Mapping mobility in Suburban Territories; Case Study: Redding, CT” which became the platform for the spring 2015 panel, “Out of Town: The Future of Suburban Mobility,” sponsored by the Harvard Energy Journal Club and the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Discussants included Ryan C. Chin, Managing Director of the City Science Initiative and Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, Matthew George, CEO of Bridj (“the world’s first pop-up mass transit”), Philbrick, Zemp, and Daniel Thorpe, HEJC co-president and PhD candidate at Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Science (moderator).
Philbrick and Zemp’s research was developed in the Fall 2014 seminar “Territorial Intelligence: Toward Evidence-based Design,” led by David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Visiting Scholar Dr. Luis Valenzuela. Using GIS mapping and critical texts in urban theory and sociology, “Mapping Mobility” examines mobility patterns and social forces conforming motorized transport in spatially diffuse exurban communities, exposing conditions and opportunities determining and transforming new technology-based transportation innovation.