Center for Spatial Research

The Center for Spatial Research was established in 2015 as a hub for urban research that links design, architecture, urbanism, the humanities and data science. It sponsors research and curricular activities built around new technologies of mapping, data visualization and data collection and data analysis. CSR focuses on data literacy as well as interrogating the world of ‘big data,’ working to open up new areas of research and inquiry with advanced design tools to help scholars, students as well as our collaborators and audiences, to understand cities worldwide – past present and future.

Our projects generally involve collaborations with researchers and advocates across a variety of disciplines and institutions, working with them to communicate information clearly, critically, responsibly, and provocatively. We are committed to rigorous and reliable work with data; to harnessing the most powerful techniques of design and visualization; and to a critical reflection on the limits and ideologies of both data and its representation. Based in the disciplines of design, architecture and urbanism we make links and bring spatial expertise to humanities as well as the sciences.