Smart(ening up the modern) home: Redesigning power dynamics through domestic space digitalization

Lead Research Organisation: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: Welsh School of Architecture (ARCHI)

Abstract

The project Smart(ening up the modern) home: Redesigning power dynamics through domestic space digitalization (SMARTUP) explores how digitalization impacts domestic space. It examines what happens to home when it becomes smart/er, explores what "smartness" of and at home means, and addresses the consequences of home smartening. Home has long been defined by dichotomies such as outside and inside, public and private, work and care, masculine and feminine, human and non-human. The digital transformation of home reworks these dichotomies as well as their corollary power dynamics, especially since smartening up has intensified in the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. SMARTUP investigates how home has been transformed by digitalization, and with what consequences in relation to 1) the understanding of (smart) home, 2) the ways (smart) home as a dwelling has become to be imagined, planned and designed, and 3) its everyday forms as practised and experienced. These three foci are to be researched within an interdisciplinary trans-European consortium bringing together insights from across social sciences, design studies and (post)humanities. SMARTUP will produce a unique, interdisciplinary approach to the transformations brought about by the proliferation of digital technologies in contemporary homes, which promises to extensively add to the theory building on, and scholarly reconceptualization of "home". In collaboration with practitioners (of smart home design & production), and civic and cultural institutions, SMARTUP will identify the multiple impacts of digital transformation on home and its wider societal and cultural implications, thus closing a gap in knowledge about the consequences of the process of smartening-up of home pertaining to different academic disciplines. Overall, the project will identify societal and conceptual challenges posed by intensification of smartening up of home as well as offer practical and theoretical ways to solve them.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Title OntoAgency 
Description OntoAgency is a relational agency-based ontology to understand power relationships. It can be used to trace chains of decision-making, control, ownership and data sharing in design, operation, and policymaking. The ontology if fully compatible with existing BIM, SRI, BRICK and SAREF ontologies and can be retrieved in OWL or RDF formats to be used with the aforementioned ontologies or as stand-alone inside Protégé. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Dataset to be widely disseminated to the building industry and further developed together with partners form the IEA Annex 91 - Open BIM for Energy Efficient Buildings 
URL https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10402092
 
Title OntoAgency 
Description OntoAgency is a relational agency-based ontology to understand power relationships. It can be used to trace chains of decision-making, control, ownership and data sharing in design, operation, and policymaking. The ontology if fully compatible with existing BIM, SRI, BRICK and SAREF ontologies and can be retrieved in OWL or RDF formats to be used with the aforementioned ontologies or as stand-alone inside Protégé. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Dataset to be widely disseminated to the building industry and further developed together with partners form the IEA Annex 91 - Open BIM for Energy Efficient Buildings 
URL https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10402091
 
Description Expanding the scope of Smart UP beyond Europe 
Organisation National Taipei University
Country Taiwan, Province of China 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We will work together to explore how smart homes are implemented outside Europe - knowledge transfer form our project to theirs 'New Taipei city'
Collaborator Contribution Collaboration with "Graduate Institute of Urban Planning, National Taipei University" - helped with interviews on Smart Homes project in Taipei, collaboration for future publication, research student to help with data collection.
Impact Interview data Further interviews + data collection future joint paper
Start Year 2023
 
Description Smart UP research team 
Organisation Aalto University
Country Finland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This is where the Project Leader is based
Collaborator Contribution Project leading Smart UP
Impact Bleil de Souza, C., Nyklova, B., Golanska, D., Gruhlich, J., Ehrenberg, N., Hamarowski, B., Frydrysiak, S., Badyina, A., SmartUp project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policymaking of smart homes. EU BUILD UP The European Portal for energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings. Technical Article, in: https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/articles/smartup-project-preliminary-lessons-and-provocations-design-operation Topic of the month: Smart homes and smart buildings changing the way we live, December 2023.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Smart UP research team 
Organisation Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Country Czech Republic 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This is where the Project Leader is based
Collaborator Contribution Project leading Smart UP
Impact Bleil de Souza, C., Nyklova, B., Golanska, D., Gruhlich, J., Ehrenberg, N., Hamarowski, B., Frydrysiak, S., Badyina, A., SmartUp project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policymaking of smart homes. EU BUILD UP The European Portal for energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings. Technical Article, in: https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/articles/smartup-project-preliminary-lessons-and-provocations-design-operation Topic of the month: Smart homes and smart buildings changing the way we live, December 2023.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Smart UP research team 
Organisation University of Göttingen
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This is where the Project Leader is based
Collaborator Contribution Project leading Smart UP
Impact Bleil de Souza, C., Nyklova, B., Golanska, D., Gruhlich, J., Ehrenberg, N., Hamarowski, B., Frydrysiak, S., Badyina, A., SmartUp project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policymaking of smart homes. EU BUILD UP The European Portal for energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings. Technical Article, in: https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/articles/smartup-project-preliminary-lessons-and-provocations-design-operation Topic of the month: Smart homes and smart buildings changing the way we live, December 2023.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Smart UP research team 
Organisation University of Lodz
Country Poland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This is where the Project Leader is based
Collaborator Contribution Project leading Smart UP
Impact Bleil de Souza, C., Nyklova, B., Golanska, D., Gruhlich, J., Ehrenberg, N., Hamarowski, B., Frydrysiak, S., Badyina, A., SmartUp project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policymaking of smart homes. EU BUILD UP The European Portal for energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings. Technical Article, in: https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/articles/smartup-project-preliminary-lessons-and-provocations-design-operation Topic of the month: Smart homes and smart buildings changing the way we live, December 2023.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Leakage: Inaugural Conference stsing 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A presentation on Naked House / Naked people - When buildings no longer protect us and our privacy is stored in The Clouds. Panel on The Leaking Home: Exploring the Digital Transformation of Domestic Spaces.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description SmartUP Project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policy making of smart homes - Talk by Clarice Bleil de Souza 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Bleil de Souza, C., "SmartUP Project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policy making." EU BUILD UP Ambassadors meeting. October 2023. Brussels, Belgium.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description SmartUp project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policymaking of smart homes. EU BUILD UP Technical Article 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Bleil de Souza, C., Nyklova, B., Golanska, D., Gruhlich, J., Ehrenberg, N., Hamarowski, B., Frydrysiak, S., Badyina, A., SmartUp project: Preliminary lessons & provocations for design, operation and policymaking of smart homes. EU BUILD UP The European Portal for energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings. Technical Article, in: https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/articles/smartup-project-preliminary-lessons-and-provocations-design-operation Topic of the month: Smart homes and smart buildings changing the way we live, December 2023.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/articles/smartup-project-preliminary-lessons-an...
 
Description Spatially just transitions - talk by Oleg Goluchikov 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Wales-Taiwan Research Forum, National Taipei University, 24 March 2023.
Presentation on "Spatially just transitions"
Discussion of the project.
Outcome: raising awareness of the project, receiving feedback in a new context, developing project collaboration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023