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explorations of spatiality under the
notions of virtual reality (VR) and
3D worlds, game design (including
3D games, platform games, and
arcade games), mobile computing,
ubiquitous computing, smart/
intelligent environments, location-
based and context-aware services,
augmented reality, and, most recently,
mobile augmented reality, notions
of proxemics/proxemic interaction,
device ecologies, and—at architectural
scale—interaction design for smart
buildings, interactive architecture, and
even smart cities and urban computing.
Going back to the early days of the
graphical user interface (GUI), we can
notice how the core ideas behind GUIs
not only enabled us to imagine and
design interfaces in which we organized
interaction graphically, but also, and
more fundamentally, came with a clear
agenda for the spatial organization of
information and interaction (for a more
in-depth discussion of architectures of
interaction, see the work by Heather
Wiltse and Erik Stolterman [ 2]).
So, while one can argue that
technology enables us to bridge
geographical distance, which
introduces a seeming paradox for the
exploration of spatial dimensions
of interaction design, the history of
HCI tells us there is, contrary to this
position, a very interesting design
space to be explored related to how we
can reimagine and repurpose spatial
dimensions of our built environment
at the intersection of architecture and
interaction design.
Beyond being an interesting topic
for further exploration, it has also been
acknowledged in our community that
we do indeed need a better integration
of interaction design and architecture.
As formulated by Sengers et al.:
“Imagine a world without architects,
where only engineers construct
buildings. With a keen eye toward
functionality, these engineers would
make sure the buildings were sound,
but something would be lacking.
People would miss the richness of
architecture—the designed connection
to their lives, history, and culture. The
designed experience of these buildings
would be irrelevant to their social
and personal concept of buildings.
Yet this is the world researchers are
inadvertently creating with ubiquitous
computing” [ 3].

A GROWING FIELD
OF EXPLORATIONS

It is not only through technological developments (including ubiquitous computing, embedded systems, and the Io T) or via the history of HCI that we can see a recurring interest in blending interaction design with our built environment, or in reimagining spatiality through the lens of interaction design. During the past few years, we can also notice a growing academic interest in the intersection of interaction design and architecture. This interest stretches from published books and academic papers explicitly focused on this intersection (see, for instance, [ 2, 4, 5, 6]) to the arrangement of two recent CHI workshops explicitly focused on the intersection of interaction and architecture, including “Ar-CHI-tecture” at CHI’ 12 and

While architecture
and interaction design
have traditionally dealt
with ontologically
different matters, this
distinction is now being
challenged.

View of the Kunsthaus Graz from the Schlossberg.