“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” ― Jane Jacobs.

The team walked in San José downtown with a question in mind: Who can be included in the co-creation process of the cities? Unfortunately it seems like some buildings are not included in this important process and some of them have already been demolished. Regarding the architectural heritage of San José; how might we redefine the value of the buildings, making a stronger, deeper and more empathetic relationship with them?

Building Memories is a project that with help of machine learning, buildings can gather everyday data and start building their own language, reflect on their own dreams and express their own voice with humans who visit them. The way that people interact with the buildings is very simple: when the person enters an historical building will find an embedded wall device and by knocking on it and saying “UPE!”, which is an old Costa Rican way to knock a door, will listen to what the building has to say. The audio feedback provided to the citizens will be a mix of sounds that the building has captured over time, the machine learning process will gather that information and will help the buildings create their own memory.

With this project buildings would be included in the city making process, developing a stronger identity over time, becoming a new kind of citizen and generating a meaningful relationship with people. 

The prototype project is using Arduino boards to gather information through different sensors such temperature, humidity, audio and proximity detection. Sending and sharing that data to a cloud server, using machine learning technology to process the information and sending the feedback in real time to the user. Ideally the devices will be connected to each other and also provide rich real-time information to the city to be part of an open data platform for smart and emotional cities.