About

The world faces an ever-growing deluge of data that demands new and innovative ways of thinking. Developing clear, sophisticated, and accessible visualizations for existing and future data sets is a vital part of understanding and leading an increasingly data-centric world.

Sustaining its mandate for global thought leadership surrounding the future of cities, and with the support of Thomson Reuters, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia is at the forefront of a university-wide project on the future of data visualization, the Advanced Data Visualization Project (ADVP).

Hosted at GSAPP, the ADVP brings together an interdisciplinary group from within Columbia and beyond to encourage diverse thinking around all facets of data visualization.

The first year of the ADVP establishes a platform for large-scale experiments culminating in the establishment of a formal Institute for Advanced Data Visualization. Led by Laura Kurgan (Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at GSAPP) and David Benjamin (Director of the Living Architecture Lab at GSAPP), the ADVP initially includes six interdisciplinary visualization projects as well as studio courses, events, an exhibition, and a publication to engage students and the public.

Project Directors

David Benjamin
David Benjamin is Director of the Living Architecture Lab at Columbia GSAPP and Founding Principal of The Living. His research and design projects explore the intersection of technology and architecture, with an emphasis on advanced computation, biological systems, physical sensors, public space, and the environment. The lab and the firm create full-scale, functioning prototypes of the architecture of the future, and their work has won many awards including the Young Architects Prize from the Architectural League and the New Practices Award from the American Institute of Architects.

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Laura Kurgan
Laura Kurgan is and Associate Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where she directs the Visual Studies curriculum, the Spatial Information Design Lab and is Co-Director of the Advanced Data Visualization Project. She is the author of Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology, and Politics (Zone Books, 2013). She was the winner of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship in 2009.

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Research Associates

Jochen Hartmann
Jochen Hartmann is a freelance designer and software developer. He received his M.Arch from GSAPP in May of 2013, where he also worked as a Creative Technologist for the Cloud Communication Software group. He holds a B.F.A in Fine Art from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as an engineer at Google prior to entering the graduate program at Columbia. Outside of his work at the ADVP, Jochen is a member of the Network Architecture Lab, co-founder of the Phaserprone record label and an independent game designer.

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Dan Taeyoung Lee
Dan Taeyoung Lee is interested in the intersection of architecture, politics, technology, and community. He holds an M. Arch from the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, and a B.A. in Art History and Computer Science from Columbia University. Within GSAPP, he has worked as a Teaching Assistant, a Program Council representative, and as a Creative Technologist for the Cloud Communication Group. Outside of GSAPP, he is the co-founder of Troupe Operations, a group of architects currently designing a non-profit co-working collective in Hell's Kitchen, NYC, slated for launch in Spring 2014.

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Jen Lowe
Jen Lowe is an Associate Research Scholar of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where she is a member of the Spatial Information Design Lab. She has a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and a Master's in Information Science. Her research investigates new forms of data visualization and communication and the implications of data in society.

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Danil Nagy
Danil Nagy is an Associate Research Scholar for the Advanced Data Visualization Project, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. His work spans a wide range of scales and disciplines including software, installation, architectural and urban design, and community and economic development planning. His prime interest is in bridging these various scales with a common design intelligence based on specific lines of research and inquiry and a focus on computation and digital methods.

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Annelie Berner
Annelie Berner focuses on novel forms of presenting data. She received her Master's from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU (2013), where she focused on aesthetic, tangible data representation through digital visualizations and physical objects.

She focused on play and design methods for creative governance while pursuing her degree in Government at Harvard.

Before joining SIDL, she was a summer resident at IDEO and worked at the New York Times Research and Development Lab.

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Student Research Assistants

Dare Brawley
Centennial Scholar, Barnard College

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Madeeha Y Merchant
Madeeha Merchant is a third year M.Arch student at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, interested in the crossroads of Architecture, Engineering and Data Science. She holds a Bachelors in Computer Systems Engineering with specialization in Mathematics and Management, from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst and has worked on pilot projects, for Intel. Her work has been published in Volume, Domus, Abstract, Wired and the IEEE Journal.

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