ABSTRACT Digital technologies facilitate design solutions based on functional, ethical, and aesthetic parameters. However, predictions regarding people’s quality of life in relation to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are uncertain. Therefore, this study discusses integrated design resolutions and human-centered design. To this end, digital resources—algorithmic rule, the Internet of things, and artificial intelligence (AI)—are analyzed, targeting interactive digital systems. Specifically, this analysis seeks to identify the limits of AI’s capacity to solve human problems involving design-based learning (DBL) in three stages of development, namely problem analysis, problem solution, and project reporting. New attempts to resolve problems during the human–machine learning process are analyzed to address problems unsolved by AI by highlighting human values and goodwill in decisions, choices, and solutions regarding when and how a decision can be made. Theoretical and methodological approaches are developed to deepen design questions as social phenomena that incorporate meaning and materiality into creative solutions that enrich urban space, design, and architectural projects aimed at long-term goals. This qualitative research focuses on observations through direct interaction between the researcher and the object of study—namely, intelligent environments expanding public spaces and the mediation between humans and machines—as well as varied experiences of the perceptions, actions, and behaviors of the actors involved in smart city projects. Through a theoretical foundation, the responsibility of design concerning the global and local contexts of São Paulo and Berlin in terms of its potential for social transformation is discussed. This verifies the need for planning based on ethical and aesthetic aspects of public policies for urbanization solutions while considering integrated design.

Author Biography: Christiane Wagner is a research professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) and an affiliated researcher at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry Berlin. Her research project addresses the USP Global Cities Program on Expanding Public Spaces: Smart City’s Empirical Research in São Paulo and Berlin. The implementation of this project targets the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on the 11th goal of sustainable cities and communities. Among the author’s major publications are the book Visualizations of Urban Space: Digital Age, Aesthetics, and Politics, Advances in Urban Sustainability (London and New York: Routledge, 2022) and the co-edition of Kunst, Design und die »Technisierte Ästhetik« (Reihe Welt Gestalten, Bd. 6. Marburg: Büchner-Verlag, 2023). University of São Paulo, Institute of Advanced Studies USP Global Cities Synthesis Center Email: christiane.wagner@usp.br Institute for Cultural Inquiry Berlin (ICI Berlin) Christinenstraße 18-19, Haus 8 - 10119 Berlin Email: christiane.wagner@ici-berlin.org