Indoor City Lab Guides Inclusive Urban Design
At the University College of London, an indoor lab sits as the experimental backdrop for life-sized city spaces in order to understand inclusive urban research and design.
The Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory, or PEARL for short, came through due, in part, to the efforts of Penoyre & Prasad, part of the London studio of Perkins&Will.
The lab creates life-sized replicas of public spaces such as railway stations, parks, and even jetways, using light, sound, smell, and other sensory stimuli, to observe how people navigate these spaces, with a focus on designing public settings that are safe, accessible, and inclusive for all body types and abilities.
Nearly spanning the size of a football field, the space allows researchers to control variables and observe participants rather than using computer or in-person surveys and interviews.
One such example includes a simulated park setting including living and artificial plants, grass, leaves on the ground, and a 30-by-30-foot video of a London park on four screens. This environment allowed researchers to observe children with cognitive challenges, and record their reactions to noise to understand the building blocks of acoustically protected spaces for children.
In addition, researchers can also observe participants using brain scanners to understand how a participant’s brain and body react to stimuli.
