- What is Habidatum, what is the purpose of this project, for whom is it intended?
- Habidatum is a company created by geographers, architects, designers, specialists in the field of computer technology to develop a new type of urban analytics based on spontaneous data.
We work with the "invisible" city, studying and processing information generated by people using various devices and gadgets, whether it be a mobile phone, credit card, hot water meter or a computer through which you can enter a social network and leave a message there.
All this information is produced by people in real time, and although most of it is a by-product of their activities, it serves as a phenomenal source of knowledge of the city: patterns of mobility, local identity, economic potential.
All this can be seen thanks to the Habidatum platform, which visualizes the flow of spontaneous data, makes it visible, analytically structures it in space and time, and thus makes it possible to see the urban community in its real dynamics.
Based on the platform, we create professional interfaces with the help of which city planners, managers, commercial real estate managers, retailers, transport policy specialists can analyze trends, make decisions, make forecasts, estimate the value of real estate, the commercial capacity of a place, the impact of urban planning projects on the city. community, identify changes in the natural boundaries of urban agglomerations, identify places of poor transport accessibility, understand the best type of land use.
I recently heard from the Norwegian architect, founder of the Snøhetta bureau, Kjetil Thorsen, the phrase that architecture, like opera or ballet, is a performing art, it is not just scenery for a performance, but the performance itself. Habidatum provides a unique opportunity for architects and planners to be in the city with their ideas and solutions in the right place for people, and, most importantly, on time. It was created for this, for the implementation of the connection of the physical space of the city with the socio-cultural and virtual.
Are there analogues of such a platform in the world? If not, what do you think, why? If so, how does Habidatum differ from them?
- So far we do not know platforms similar to Habidatum, although research in the field of spontaneous data and its application in urban planning is very active! The laboratories of American and British universities are in the lead here: they conduct a lot of useful and very interesting research, but they are engaged in commercial, instrumental applications less, at least so far.
I am sure that competition in our market will grow, but this market is so large and complex that leadership in it will be determined not only by a good technological solution, but above all by the high intellectual quality of the product.
One of the discoveries for me in this project was the helplessness of spontaneous data as such, despite their uniqueness, to reveal the invisible fabric of the city. Urban analytics itself, the theories on which it is based, urban studies in dialogue with data turn out to be much more important for the final result. Without them, the data is dead and banal, their simple visualization gives nothing but a slight surprise and aesthetic pleasure.
That is why the product that Habidatum produces is called analytical visualization, and not so much because it gives urban analysts food for thought, but because the very basis of this visualization is already based on analytical concepts and ideas about the city. Much, of course, is revealed by the data itself, but only an analyst can see this, the view of an IT specialist is not enough here.
How will the project be presented at Zodchestvo?
- At Zodchestvo we decided to present our latest applied works on the use of spontaneous data in assessing the cadastral value of commercial real estate, identifying areas of low transport accessibility of urban areas and in defining the boundaries of urban agglomerations. The work was carried out on the material of the cities of Russia: Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ufa, Khabarovsk. We worked together with specialists from the Institute of Urban Economics and the Federal Center for Project Financing. These are one of the first applied models of the Habidatum platform, but it is already clear that there is a great deal of practical interest in them. The cadastral valuation of commercial real estate can become much more accurate and remove most of the disputes between property owners and tax authorities. The city authorities will be able to easily identify areas of persistently low transport accessibility, developing at any time of the day (week, month, year) and react to this. Municipalities within the urban agglomeration will have the opportunity to organize planning, tariff, service and tax conventions precisely for those areas of the agglomeration where they are really needed.
We are trying to make sure that the established stereotype that "architecture is always late" was finally broken and a thing of the past.
