AT6012 Design Research

Technology Transformations · Living Knowledge Commons · 2025-26

Non-Isolated Ecologies Regenerative Design Community Resilience Technology Transformations
8
Active Groups
32
Students Grouped
33
Total Students
Group 1

Urban Reclamation

5 members

Investigating vegetation reclaiming abandoned urban environments through spontaneous ecological return. Examines dereliction as a transitional condition where natural processes open possibilities for regenerative urban futures.

  • Daragh Barrett (116737065)
  • Charlie Buckley (119411834)
  • Daire Horgan (117402302)
  • Ellen O'Gorman (118417604)
  • Martha O'Donoghue Lyons (118504166)
Research Themes
  • Spontaneous vegetation as design agent
  • Urban political ecology
  • Post-humanist perspectives
  • Adaptive reuse strategies
  • Novel ecosystem formation
Categories
  • Non-isolated ecologies
  • Multi-scalar analysis
  • Landscape urbanism
  • Regenerative design

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO1: Non-isolated systems thinking
  • LO4: Research & interpret urban systems
  • LO7: Apply regenerative design principles
Key Explorations
  • Saint-Louis industrial yards
  • La Cabucelle vacant plots
  • Les Crottes infrastructural voids
  • La Belle de Mai post-industrial edges
Project Description
This project investigates the intertwined processes of urban dereliction and spontaneous ecological return, focusing on how vegetation reclaims abandoned or under-maintained environments. Dereliction is considered not only as a physical condition—marked by decay, vacancy, and material breakdown—but also as a socio-spatial symptom of shifting economies, uneven development, and changing cultural priorities. Working across multiple scales, the research moves from the material and biological (plant succession, soil regeneration, micro-ecologies forming in rubble) to the architectural and urban (unused buildings, fragmented districts, infrastructural voids), and further to the social and territorial (community perceptions of abandonment, shifting land-use patterns, and broader historical cycles of growth and decline). The project is informed by several theoretical frameworks. Urban political ecology provides a foundation for understanding dereliction as a product of socio-economic forces rather than as a purely physical failure. Landscape urbanism frames vegetation as an active design agent capable of transforming and reorganising space over time. Ruin theory and post-humanist perspectives support an approach that moves beyond anthropocentric definitions of value.
Evolving Narrative
The project is beginning to take shape around an interest in dereliction in Marseille and the ways vegetation quietly returns to abandoned or paused sites throughout the city. Field observations across neighbourhoods such as Saint-Louis, La Cabucelle, and Les Crottes revealed recurring patterns: former industrial yards lying open, unused plots between housing blocks, collapsed factory shells, and infrastructural voids where old rail lines or warehouses once operated. These observations encouraged us to rethink dereliction not simply as neglect or decline but as a temporary ecological interval. Many of Marseille's derelict spaces—whether the post-industrial edges of La Belle de Mai, the fragmented logistics landscapes around Arenc, or the steep, half-abandoned slopes near L'Estaque—sit between past uses and uncertain futures. In these intervals, new micro-ecologies emerge.
Group 2

Reuse and Re-habitation

4 members

Examining how abandoned sites shape social, ecological, and spatial dynamics. Investigates dereliction as a form of storytelling—layers of material history and social tension speaking through decay.

  • Leah Gleeson (118475592)
  • Kah En Low (120335923)
  • Destiny Crean O'Leary (120460306)
  • Chloe Mc Donnell (118308421)
Research Themes
  • Dereliction as storytelling
  • Urban metabolism
  • Critical heritage studies
  • Informal economies
  • Material life cycles
Categories
  • Community resilience
  • Socio-economic analysis
  • Adaptive reuse
  • Heritage conservation

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO1: Non-isolated systems thinking
  • LO3: Community engagement
  • LO4: Research & interpret urban systems
Key Explorations
  • Quartiers Nord transformation
  • La Belle de Mai regeneration
  • Informal spatial appropriations
  • Community memory mapping
Project Description
Our project focuses on the condition of dereliction and architectural decay within the city of Marseille. Examining how abandoned or neglected sites shape social, ecological, and spatial dynamics. Dereliction in Marseille is not only a physical phenomenon seen in crumbling facades, vacant industrial structures, or half-inhabited housing blocks but also a symptom of deeper historical, political, and social tensions. The work spans multiple scales. At the urban scale, it interrogates the uneven development across Marseille's neighbourhoods and the clustering of decay in areas marked by socio-economic instability. At the building scale, it examines specific material failures, structural abandonment, and the life cycles of architectural forms. At the community and social scale, it considers how dereliction affects wellbeing, safety, and belonging.
Evolving Narrative
Our projects in Marseille began as an exploration of dereliction, but it has evolved into a deeper investigation of how decay acts as a form of storytelling within the city. The abandoned buildings, fractured infrastructures, and forgotten industrial edges of Marseille speak through layers of material history and social tension. What initially drew us to these types of sites was their visual intensity—the rusting steel, the peeling concrete, the vegetation and street art reclaiming walls—but through field research, we became increasingly aware that these are not simply aesthetic ruins. They are active agents in the city's unfolding narrative.
Group 3

Technofossils: Geological Evidence

4 members

Addressing the impact of Anthropogenic Technologies and the marks they leave on Earth's surface. Multi-scalar analysis of materials and technologies that will persist as geological evidence of human activity.

  • Ciara O'Connell (117345836)
  • Kate Crowley (119408082)
  • Julia Przado (119426244)
  • Roisin Hayes (119428004)
Research Themes
  • Anthropocene markers
  • Material persistence
  • Deep time perspectives
  • Forensic geology
  • Stratigraphic analysis
Categories
  • Technology transformations
  • Multi-scalar analysis
  • Material science
  • Earth system processes

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO2: Thermodynamic & material flows
  • LO4: Research & interpret systems
  • LO5: Design & implement repository
Key Explorations
  • Microscopic sample analysis
  • Mineral composition forensics
  • Stratigraphical mapping
  • Plastecene epoch markers
Project Description
We are addressing the impact of Anthropogenic Technologies and the marks they will leave on the Earth's surface. We will take a multi-scalar approach to analysing the materials and technologies which will remain behind long after our civilisation has ended, as evidence of our current geological Epoch of the Anthropocene. The idea of the rock as archive of human "evolution" when examined through a "post mortem" lens. Perhaps also questioning whether the idea of evolution and progress is positive or negative. Plastics and other human technologies which exist as a hyper object to be found throughout the globe, and how that story of the "plastecene epoch" will be told by the Earth millions of years from now.
Evolving Narrative
Our fieldwork so far has been multi scalar, as 2/4 have examined geology at a microscopic level, and the other 2/4 have examined the geological makeup of the Earth at a macro scale. The microscopic analysis involved collecting physical samples of geology from Marseille and studying both the samples and their respective landscapes topographically. A further forensic study was carried out which examined the mineral and chemical composition and makeup of each sample. Next we look to adapt our respective methodologies through a forensic lens, and examine the so called "evidence" that the Anthropocene will leave in its wake. Technofossils are geological evidence of human technology which will persist for millions of years, far beyond the current "lifespan" of our civilisation.
Group 4

AI-Driven Housing Analysis

4 members

Investigating housing quality through AI models analysing density, safety, privacy, and accessibility. Developing universal vocabulary for AI-assisted housing design with clear parameters for reproducible outcomes.

  • Sean Ryan (120498756)
  • Caitriona Ryan (120382641)
  • Eadaoin Coghlan (119453966)
  • Sean O'Neill (119472792)
Research Themes
  • Machine learning applications
  • Housing typology analysis
  • Accessibility dimensions
  • Standardised design vocabulary
  • Comparative urban analysis
Categories
  • Technology transformations
  • AI fluency
  • Social equity
  • Building performance

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO5: Design & implement repository
  • LO6: Integrate sensor technologies
  • LO8: AI fluency framework
Key Explorations
  • Density metrics analysis
  • Safety & mould correlation
  • Privacy in co-habitation
  • Universal design principles
Project Description
Our group is investigating housing quality in Marseille through four key themes: density, safety, privacy, and accessibility. The project compares the most common multi-residential housing typologies in Marseille and Cork, allowing us to understand our findings within our immediate context and draw more meaningful conclusions. A key goal of this research is to establish a universal vocabulary for AI-assisted housing design with a clear set of keywords, phrases, and descriptive parameters that maintain focus and consistency when working with AI systems. This vocabulary will serve several purposes: ensuring that AI-generated outputs can be reproduced, enabling more precise communication of design intent, and creating a practical framework that other researchers and practitioners can use.
Evolving Narrative
Accessibility - Our research looks at accessibility through three connected dimensions. Physical access examines the practical barriers and solutions—how people move through spaces, navigate thresholds, and use adaptable layouts in multi-residential buildings. Universal design goes beyond meeting minimum standards to create housing that works for everyone from the start. Safety - The safety of the buildings will be a key area of study for this project, with special consideration given to the aging housing stock of Marseille and Cork. A 2022 study found that, in Marseille it is often failures related to architectural technology and its implementation in design that lead to health risks and hazards to life.
Group 5

Auto Amelioration

4 members

Proposing removal of non-public vehicles from city centre to address air quality and public health. A 'what-if' scenario exploring radical pedestrianisation inspired by Curitiba's BRT system.

  • Grace Kiernan (119327001)
  • Sarah Murphy (119404342)
  • Gabriela Belbot (125103827)
  • Cornelius Joseph Cotter (117372873)
Research Themes
  • Urban air quality
  • Radical pedestrianisation
  • Public transport mandate
  • Green corridor creation
  • Noise pollution reduction
Categories
  • Community resilience
  • Public health
  • Social equity
  • Climate action

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO1: Non-isolated systems thinking
  • LO3: Community engagement
  • LO7: Apply regenerative principles
Key Explorations
  • Curitiba BRT comparison
  • Low emission zone expansion
  • Boulangerie proximity law
  • Public transport capacity analysis
Project Description
This project proposes to remove all non-public vehicles from Marseille city centre, expanding upon the existing low emission zones implemented by the city government. The project aims to address issues of public health and wellbeing, emission reduction, and improve overall climate consciousness. We are inspired by the public transport mandate of Curitiba, Brazil, where a rapid switch from private to public transport was implemented in the 60s and 70s. This project asks the question, if all ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles were banned from Marseille tomorrow, what would happen?
Evolving Narrative
Removal of non-public vehicles from the city centre. - Marseille has some of the worst air quality in the southern region - In 2016, Marseille had the worst air quality in all of France - Traffic is the largest contributor (40-50%) to air pollution in Marseille - The question of scooters - 10% of scooters run on a diesel engine Scope of 'no-car' zone informed by French laws regarding the legal distance between citizens and boulangeries. Inspired by the RIT BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system in Curitiba, Brazil which carries approximately 2.3 million passengers daily.
Group 6

Fluid Memory: Water Narratives

4 members

Tracing lost narratives of Marseille's waters through the Canal de Marseille. Investigates water as both resource and medium—an active agent of movement, exchange, and urban transformation.

  • Sophie O'Sullivan (119371311)
  • Mortimer Murphy (120444882)
  • Cathal Mc Loughlin (119458042)
  • Lauren Fahey (120711249)
Research Themes
  • Hydraulic infrastructure
  • Urban morphology
  • Water as transport
  • Cultural forgetting
  • Political ecology of water
Categories
  • Non-isolated ecologies
  • Historical transformation
  • Infrastructure urbanism
  • Phenomenology of water

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO1: Non-isolated systems thinking
  • LO2: Thermodynamic & material flows
  • LO4: Research & interpret systems
Key Explorations
  • Canal de Marseille sections
  • Historical water scarcity
  • Water as civic salvation
  • Buried infrastructure mapping
Project Description
This project forms a technical and analytical counterpoint to broader architectural thesis on the Canal de Marseille and the cultural, political, and social significance of water within the city. While tracing the historic transformation of Marseille's water infrastructure—from centuries of scarcity and contaminated river sources to the monumental arrival of the canal—this project narrows in on the city's evolving relationship to water as both resource and medium. The project focuses particularly on water as an active agent of movement and exchange. In earlier centuries, waterways were understood as superior modes of transportation—faster, more reliable, and more strategically valuable than horse-drawn movement across rugged terrain.
Evolving Narrative
This research in Marseille began with a fascination for the Canal de Marseille as a monumental infrastructural intervention—an engineered lifeline that transformed a city historically marked by thirst, disease, and unreliable rivers. By tracing sections of the canal, walking its surrounding neighbourhoods, and observing how little of its legacy remains in public consciousness, the project shifted in tone and depth. It became clear that the inquiry was not simply about engineering, but about the cultural forgetting of water's significance. In Marseille, water is simultaneously pervasive and invisible: embedded in maritime identity, daily habits, and civic rituals, yet detached from its historical origins of scarcity and struggle.
Group 7

Infrastructures of Subjugation

2 members

Examining recurring subjugation through spatial, political, and technological transformations. Traces continuity between 19th-century boulevards and 21st-century data centres as tools of external power.

  • Jack Sheehan (120465994)
  • Aoife Cowman (120496836)
Research Themes
  • Spatial control systems
  • Data centre extraction
  • Urban resistance patterns
  • Foucauldian power analysis
  • Post-industrial critique
Categories
  • Technology transformations
  • Spatial justice
  • Political ecology
  • Infrastructure studies

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO1: Non-isolated systems thinking
  • LO2: Thermodynamic & material flows
  • LO6: Integrate sensor technologies
Key Explorations
  • 1848 boulevard restructuring
  • Data centre water extraction
  • Energy sovereignty
  • Digital backbone of Europe
Project Description
This project examines the recurring subjugation of Marseille through spatial, political, and now technological transformations. Historically, the city's organically formed medieval fabric, shaped by topography and incremental growth, has repeatedly collided with imposed geometries of state authority. The most profound instance of this occurred in the decades following 1848, when the government violently restructured the city in response to working-class uprisings. Today, Marseille faces a new mode of suppression through the expansion of data centres, whose extraction of drinking water, production of heated wastewater, and massive electrical demand impose strain on local populations and ecosystems.
Evolving Narrative
Marseille has long been a city defined by forces of suppression and subjugation, its urban fabric repeatedly reshaped by powers operating from above rather than from within. The medieval city's irregular morphology, formed through centuries of organic growth and topographic constraint, has often stood in direct opposition to the rigid geometries of state authority. In 1848, following the uprisings of the working-class, the government imposed a violent restructuring of Marseille, carving grand, linear boulevards through dense neighbourhoods as a means of surveillance, circulation, and control. Today, the data centre becomes a contemporary parallel to the nineteenth-century boulevard—a tool through which external systems of power extract from Marseille.
Group 8

Waterscape: Water Ecologies

5 members

How ecology and landscape geography have shaped—and continue to reshape—architecture's past and future. Research on pollution in and around Marseille harbour, compiling data into a structured repository for future cohorts.

  • Kevin O'Shea (120353716)
  • Broghan Mc Carthy (120393516)
  • Enda Traynor (119446294)
  • Mark Bracken (120358826)
  • Marko Vidic (120729151)
Research Themes
  • Harbour pollution mapping
  • Multi-scalar water analysis
  • Data repository design
  • Landscape geography
  • Ecological monitoring
Categories
  • Non-isolated ecologies
  • Technology transformations
  • Living Knowledge Commons
  • Open data analysis

Module Alignment (AT6012)

  • LO1: Non-isolated systems thinking
  • LO5: Design & implement repository
  • LO6: Integrate sensor technologies
  • LO7: Apply regenerative principles
Key Explorations
  • Hub'Eau API integration
  • SOMLIT-Frioul marine data
  • Watershed boundary mapping
  • Building-neighbourhood-territorial scales
Technical Dossier Focus
  • Multi-Scalar Hydrological Dashboard
  • D3.js / Leaflet.js visualisation
  • Open data API integration
  • Temporal pattern analysis
Project Description
This project investigates how ecology and landscape geography have shaped—and are continuing to reshape—architecture's past and future. The research focuses on pollution in and around the Marseille harbour, compiling all relevant pollution data into a structured database repository. This repository will serve as a central information space for the Technical Dossier organised around specific pollution topics and the data sets associated with each one. The goal is to create individual slides and a well-structured data platform that future students can expand upon—embodying the Living Knowledge Commons approach. The project operates across three nested scales: - Building Scale: Greywater systems, rainwater harvesting, hygrothermal performance - Neighbourhood Scale: Urban drainage networks, permeable surface ratios, green infrastructure - Territorial Scale: Watershed boundaries, aquifer systems, coastal dynamics
Technical Approach
The Technical Dossier proposes a Multi-Scalar Hydrological Dashboard for Marseille integrating open data APIs into an interactive visualisation platform. Key Data Sources: - Hub'Eau (French National Water Platform): Real-time water levels, flow rates, quality monitoring - SOMLIT-Frioul: Bay of Marseille water quality time series since 1995 - Copernicus Marine Service: Real-time coastal monitoring and forecasting - Géoportail France: Watershed boundaries, flood zones Technology Stack: - D3.js for custom charts and Sankey diagrams - Leaflet.js for interactive mapping - QGIS + SAGA for watershed analysis - Python/R for API data processing The dashboard will feature three nested map layers (territorial → neighbourhood → building) with temporal sliders for seasonal and annual pattern analysis.