LATEST RESEARCH PAPER
Revisiting the
Spatial Definition
of Neighborhood Boundaries:
–
Functional Clusters
versus
Administrative Neighborhoods
urbanism
DATA AND THE CITY
In recent years, big data and in particular social media data have been used to observe the city and define new areas of study that allow researchers to set different approaches to acquire knowledge about the city.
“They have created opportunities to visualize and explore human-environment connections that were previously invisible”.
These new approaches make scholars and planners capable of studying intangible parameters linked to places through layers of information.
These layers allow to define invisible image of the city beyond its spatial form through the study of data. In other words, this approach to the city would be formed by a set of individual significations, experiences and perceptions that constitute complex system with a phenomenological approach. Cities are a hybrid space where intangible layers merge with physical space.
Data visualization and GIS tools allow us to extract socio-spatial information from raw data sources and make it suitable for urban analysis and evaluation.
Projects listed here are developed within great multi-disciplinary teams at SPIN UNIT Lab Helsinki, Finland; SPIN UNIT Tallinn, Estonia, and the Digital City Science at HafenCity University in Hamburg, Germany.
FEATURED PROJECTS >
DWELLING AND THE CITY
architecture
Spatial configuration of places cannot be considered the only driver of life in the city, as online interactions take a role in the process that must be acknowledged. Unprecedented tools, methods, techniques and trans-disciplinary perspectives are currently being tested and deployed in this new field of research.
Architectural design projects listed here were developed in Jaime Sepulcre Arquitecturas in Elche, Spain (2015-2016) in COCO Studio in Alicante, Spain (2017), in BERSAM Gestión Arquitectónica in El Campello, Spain (2018), or as freelance work (2017-2019).
graphic, web, and product design
DESIGN AND THE CITY
The novelty of this research field and the enormous creative and evolutionary capacity of data platforms aim to be initial approaches that provide a multidisciplinary discourse to support further studies on why and how to look at cities, acknowledging their multiple and contemporary dimensions, and testing innovative methods and perspectives to exploit these resources.
These academic work is performed as a part of research at the University of Alicante, Spain (2015-2019), as R+D in SPIN Unit Lab Helsink-Tallinn (2016-ongoing), at the HafenCity University in Hamburg, Germany (2018-ongoing) or as independent work.
Some of the papers listed here were also presented in international symposiums and congresses.
academic work
RESEARCH AND THE CITY
PRESS
PRESS >
ABOUT
Dr. Jesús López-Baeza specializes in leveraging location-based data to study urban phenomena, addressing topics such as social cohesion, livability, identity, perception, sustainability, urban growth and decline, traffic flow, and pedestrian modeling.
He graduated in Architecture from the University of Alicante, Spain (2015), and later specialized in urban science and data analytics through his Master's studies (2016) and PhD (2020). Dr. López-Baeza served as a Research Associate at HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany (2017–2020), before becoming the Science Lead of the institution's Digital City Science group (2020–2023). In this role, he developed applied innovation projects funded by German national programs, international consortia, private companies, and the European Commission, as well as research collaborations with several European universities and public authorities.
After residing in Germany for several years, he returned to Spain, where he applied his expertise in urban analytics to the location strategies of JD Sports and Sprinter retail chains (2023). Later, he transitioned to a strategic consultancy role in smart cities at MB3 Gestión (2023–2024) where he now leads the Urban and Regional Solutions unit (since 2024), focusing on digital twins, data spaces, intelligence systems, and other digital tools for monitoring and managing cities and regions.
Since 2016, he has collaborated with the consulting company SPIN Unit in Helsinki and Tallinn, developing urban research projects. Additionally, he has been teaching in the Bachelor of Urban Planning program at the Gengdan Institute of Beijing University of Technology (since 2017).
Dr. López-Baeza's methodologies and frameworks for understanding urban dynamics have informed policy and planning decisions in cities worldwide. His work has been published in academic journals and presented at international conferences.
