Interdisciplinary Project Approach at the Analysis of Urban Happiness

Developing, managing and displaying interdisciplinary content with the outlook on designing smart cities from a humanistic approach

¹ Universidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
² University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract

The following paper illuminates the process of interdisciplinary teamwork alongside a real project at the University de Monterrey. Connecting the faculties of architecture and medicine as well as integrating participants of the University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe, Germany, the project is aiming to get a new view on the connection of urban happiness, architecture and corresponding systems and processes in the human body. It combines philosophical research to define the term urban happiness as well as practical analysis of the city of Monterrey resulting in different problem cases for citizens nowadays. These problems were then used to draw a line to similar systems and cases which can be found in the human body and to see, how the human bodies way of solving problems can help architecture and especially the development of smart cities in the future – because keeping a focus on the human side will be an important part of realizing smarter cities. The paper is also focusing on the process of teamwork itself. It shows the necessary steps from initiating the project to organizing teams and communication up to the process of communicating and displaying the acquired knowledge.