MIT’s Senseable City Lab – Benguerir

SENSEable City Lab is a cutting–edge multidisciplinary research group based at MIT that studies the interface between cities, people, and technologies and investigates how the ubiquity of digital devices and the various  telecommunication networks that augment our cities, are impacting urban living.  Marc Norman’s LAUNCH PAD (Aire de Lancement, in French) completed with the Lab for Benguerir, Morocco, reimagines planned stops along future shuttle routes as public space – providing seating, a shade structure and information displays – while also embedding both digital and physical educational techniques into the public realm. The physical distance between Benguerir and the Ville Verte is small; the social and psychological distances are vast. The LAUNCH PAD can reduce these distances by creating engaged interactions for researchers and the potential to transform lives of residents. Providing an interface that can address the gaps in educational attainment, wealth and access to knowledge holds the promise of launching a new era for Benguerir and a prototype for the Moroccan
republic. See the animation for the Launchpad .