Social matter, social design challenges the way we look at, think of, and interact with the social world by emphasising the role of materiality. This enlarged field for engagement demands that design incorporates a more nuanced and complex reading of how the social is intertwined with the material, which confronts the often reductive or simplistic notion of ‘social design’, and offers novel forms of critical and meaningful engagement at a time of mounting social contradictions.@en

Kitchen Budapest was founded in 2007 by a collective of media artists, theoreticians, and cod - ers from a variety of backgrounds. As one of the first media labs in Hungary, KiBu’s primary mission was to instigate digital literacy and DIY techniques on the local scene. KiBu has been actively present as an internationally recognized innovation lab with young researchers and developers forming its team ever since. @en

Data mining has come to the fore in recent years as a way of analysing large data sets through identifying patterns. This is increasingly being used to shape decision-making, including in urban planning and design. Michael Kaethler lays out his fears in a lament that the correlation-based approach found in data mining will disorient the emergence and retention of urban narratives. He argues that the story telling that occurs, internally and externally, relies on a causal narrative, which is threatened by a data-centred approach. Saba Golchehr provides a rebuttal in the postscript, a defence of data mining as a new means through which socially innovative narratives can evolve. She argues this requires an open mind and a non-dogmatic approach in order to use correlation as the starting point for the narratives we create.@en

The emergence of Big Data and data mining has provoked a large debate on the role of data collection and analysis in many fields (Anderson, 2008; Bollier, 2010; Kitchin, 2014; Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). Within the architectural profession it has resulted in two distinctive attitudes towards these new advances. Some architectural practices praise technology and adopt Big Data — often uncritically — to inform their design projects, while others reject computer-mediated approaches entirely and take an antagonistic stance towards a technology-dominated society and environment.@en