Despite all their well-publicized challenges, today’s cities are still regarded as immense sources of untapped potential. Architects and other designers are constantly expected to get involved in or provide solutions for the environment, transit, affordability, business, and infrastructure in most cities. At Goldsmiths, University of London, one research agency is now using architecture to solve crimes committed by individuals, corporations, and governments. More specifically, Forensic Architecture (FA) pairs investigative scientific practices with the digital tools used to design the built environment in order to recreate crime scenes.

To understand the importance of Forensic Architecture, it helps to consider a city dealing with the fallout from something like multiple days of demonstrations during a summit of world leaders. During these meetings, most protestors will exercise their right to free speech, and some of them may even approach the demonstrations with more anarchic motives. The latter group is often dealt with more harshly by law enforcement, which sometimes results in individual members of riot squads being accused of violating human rights. In some cases, these accusations are backed up by video evidence, but in many others they are not. When crimes are witnessed by others in person but there is no recording of the incident, law enforcement may try to spin the events in their favor. Thanks to forensic architecture, these narratives can now be challenge...