Due to the increase of global flows, people, products and information are moving faster than ever before. Transit stations in turn have largely lost the ability to connect the traveller with the local environment, evolving into bland and homogeneous spaces. By introducing a means to pause within these flows, it becomes possible to once again engage in and absorb the surroundings that have become ignored and disregarded. This study aims to reconnect user and the local context through an interior design of a multi-modal transit interchange. Dance and human movement are used as a methodology to unite user with place, ultimately informing new programs and spatial arrangements. The resulting interior design is able to foster place identity, allowing the user to slow their movements in order to create meaningful social, cultural and contextual connections within a transit space.

Due to the increase of global flows, people, products and information are moving faster than ever before. Transit stations in turn have largely lost the ability to connect the traveller with the local environment, evolving into bland and homogeneous spaces. By introducing a means to pause within these flows, it becomes possible to once again engage in and absorb the surroundings that have become ignored and disregarded. This study aims to reconnect user and the local context through an interior design of a multi-modal transit interchange. Dance and human movement are used as a methodology to unite user with place, ultimately informing new programs and spatial arrangements. The resulting interior design is able to foster place identity, allowing the user to slow their movements in order to create meaningful social, cultural and contextual connections within a transit space.

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Designing for sustainability is a complex process that requires to reduce the perceived risk of designing out of the traditional method, to prioritize the end-users' needs and preferences in the design, while considering the product-service dual-nature of infrastructure systems. To address such complexities, this research looks into prototyping from design thinking. Prototyping is a feedback mechanism that enriches the design process by emphasizing user experience and removing designers' fear of failure. This critical step is often absent during the design of physical infrastructure (e.g., transportation systems, water systems), in part, because of the size and complexity of these socio-technical systems. This research aims to understand how civil engineers can adopt prototyping design for large-scale and complex urban infrastructure systems and how prototyping influence design cognition among infrastructure stakeholder groups. To measure the effect of physical prototypes on users and designers, the researchers conducted nineteen interviews with community members, engineers, planners, and city officials in two prototyped projects: a road network in Macon, Georgia and a re-designed city block in Akron, Ohio. The researchers coded the interviews for evidence of how prototyping enhanced citizen engagement and how the design team was willing to adopt unconventional designs after prototyping. Improved understanding of prototyping as a design methodology for infrastructure can lead to more user-centered and innovative solutions. This research provides tools to manage design decisions in engineering and urban planning better, and new approaches for urban infrastructure problem-solving. Future research can compare how this process may inform design if immersive virtual experiences are used to prototype. / Doctor of Philosophy / Designing sustainable infrastructure is a complex process that requires designers and engineers to ‘think out of the box’ and to increase the considerations of the users’ needs and preferences in the design. The inclusion of users’ needs and preferences in the design is challenging because designers restrict themselves to come up with non-traditional ideas due to the high risks that are in play when developing infrastructure. This research looks into adapting the prototyping process of design thinking into the planning, design, and construction of infrastructure systems because of its user-centered and innovate design characteristics. Particularly, this research studied the cases of an urban transit design in Macon, Georgia and an urban revitalization design in North Hill, Akron, Ohio. Overall, the researchers conducted nineteen interviews among the design team members, project promoters, city officials, and users such as neighborhood residents, property and business owners, and community advocating groups. The interviews questioned how prototyping enhanced citizen engagement and how designers were willing to adopt unconventional designs after prototyping. This study aims to contribute to the development of more user-centered and innovative solutions in the design of infrastructure. Engineering and urban planning problem-solving practices can use the decision-making tools this study provides. Future studies can use the fast-growing technology of virtual and augmented reality to enrich the prototyping process to deliver more sustainable infrastructure systems.