News

February 2024Human Rights Watch, Truth Hounds and SITU release “Ukraine: New Findings on Russia's Devastation of Mariupol,” A War Crimes Inquiry Needed into Massive Loss of Civilian Life, Infrastructure

The report is based on 240 interviews with mostly displaced Mariupol residents and an analysis of over 850 photos and videos, documents, and dozens of satellite images. The digital multimedia feature includes 3D reconstructions of seven buildings damaged in apparently unlawful attacks, graphics on damaged schools and hospitals, and an analysis of grave sites to help estimate the death toll.

November 2023SITU Research's Brad Samuels presents at BUILD with Mapbox

Brad Samuels, Partner at SITU, participates in a live panel on What AI Means for Location Strategy at Mapbox's BUILD conference.

November 2023SITU's Brad Samuels participates in lecture, "The Education of an Architect," at National Arts Club

Distinguished professors present a panel exploring the intersection of architecture, design, and pedagogy.

August 2023"Crime Scene: Bucha” nominated for the 44th News & Documentary Emmy Awards in two categories

Crime Scene: Bucha nominated for the 44th News & Documentary Emmy Awards in two categories: Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form an Outstanding Research: News

July 2023Protesters win record $13 million-plus settlement reached over New York City Police Department’s misconduct during summer 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations

Videos produced during discovery show that NYPD misconduct during the BLM movement of 2020 were widespread and pervasive.

May 2023SITU at RightsCon 2023: Beyond Open Source

As part of this year’s RightsCon, we're excited to co-host the conversation, “Beyond Open Source,” which brings together panelists and attendees to co-establish what constitutes a holistic vision of human rights investigations, including an array of practices in which OSINT, and technology in general, is de-centered in service of a collaborative, multidisciplinary model for making human rights claims. Co-organized with The University of Chicago Law School's Global Human Rights Clinic.

May 2023SITU Research's Recent Projects, Announcements and Upcoming Programs

Historic NYPD settlements, new reporting on Russian attacks, closing arguments at the ICC, and more.

March 2023SITU Research's Bora Erden presents at Media Forensics Symposium

Bora Erden, Technical Lead of SITU Research, participates in a panel on "Forensic Practice and Its Critiques" at Dartmouth University's Media Forensics Symposium.

February 2023SITU Research and Human Rights Watch release new investigation, “Death at the Station: Russian Cluster Munition Attack in Kramatorsk”

On February 21, 2023, SITU and Human Rights Watch released a report and video analyzing a Russian Cluster Munition Attack on the Kramatorsk Train Station in Eastern Ukraine.

December 2022Bora Erden, Technical Lead of SITU Research, Presents at "Towards Greater Accountability With Open-Source Information" Panel

SITU Research's Bora Erden presents at a Geneva Academy panel on the use of open-source information in investigations of international crimes and serious human rights violations.

December 2022Cocktails & Conversation: Sarah Williams with Brad Samuels

Brad Samuels joins featured speaker Sarah Williams, Director of the Civic Data Lab at MIT, to discuss her recent exhibition, "Distance Uniknown."

October 2022Beyond the Frame: Exhibition and Lecture

Partner Brad Samuels and researcher Gauri Bahuguna present a lecture at The Cooper Union on methodologies for event reconstruction, alongside the opening of an exhibition of SITU Research's recent visual investigations.

July 2022Scripps Howard awards SITU Research and collaborator AP for Excellence in Visual Journalism

SITU Research and The Associated Press have been awarded the 69th Scripps Howard Award for “Excellence in Visual Journalism” for collaboration on the investigation, "The Cost of War” (2021).

June 2022SITU Research is awarded AIANY Design Award

SITU Research awarded a Special Citation in AIA New York Design Awards.

June 2022SITU Research launches Codec, a collaborative tool for managing video evidence

On June 7, 2022, SITU Research will hold a workshop to release a beta version of Codec, a newly developed digital platform for managing, analyzing and presenting video evidence.

March 2022SITU Research joins European Human Rights Advocacy Centre panel

Partner Brad Samuels presents alongside experts in the fields of human rights law and open source research at European Human Rights Advocacy Centre’s “Challenges of Open Source Investigations in Human Rights Litigation” panel.

September 2021COVID-19 Screening Booth initiative receives Honorable Mention from Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards

SITU’s design initiative for COVID-19 screening booths and testing centers receives an Honorable Mention in Pandemic Response Category of the 2021 Innovation by Design Awards

September 2021Université libre de Bruxelles features SITU in a new architectural publication

Our firm’s multidisciplinary workflow is the subject of a case study featured in a Belgian publication titled ‘Thinking-Making. When Architects Engage in Construction’. The book explores methods of practice that challenge the division between design and construction.

September 2021SITU Research joins International Committee of the Red Cross panel on forensic technology

Partner Brad Samuels presents methodologies and emerging tech tools used in forensic archaeology at the ICRC’s roundtable event, part of their Digital Dilemmas Debate series.

June 2021SITU Research organizes panel on innovation in investigative human rights reporting for RightsCon 2021

SITU Research convenes a panel of experts to discuss “The Anatomy of a Visual Investigation: Innovation in Human Rights and Investigative Reporting” for the 10th anniversary of RightsCon.

June 2021The Intercept — “Ambushed by the Cops: When Police Deliberately Trap Peaceful Protesters”

An Intercept and SITU Research reconstruction of an incident in North Carolina last June shows police intentionally trapped and tear-gassed hundreds of peaceful protesters.

May 2021UNITAD & SITU Research video demonstrates evidence of crimes against Yazidi in Iraq

UNITAD and SITU Research launch a 21-minute video documenting evidence of the crimes committed by ISIL against the Yazidi community in Iraq.

April 2021Sharing ‘Multidisciplinary Spatial Workflows’ with Rutgers’s landscape architecture students

SITU presents to students in Rutgers University’s Department of Landscape Architecture, sharing current work and processes in each of our divisions, and speaking to how our multidisciplinary approach reinforces the creative and social impact of our work.

March 2021Exploring surveillance and agency in the era of 3D data and 5G broadband

Director of Research Brad Samuels joins a panel hosted by MIT’s Transmedia Storytelling Initiative, focused on the ethical constraints and opportunities presented with the acceleration of 3D mapping capabilities and 5G broadband service.

March 2021SITU shares multidisciplinary practice with landscape architecture students at UPenn

Andrew Emmet and Bora Erden introduce landscape architecture students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design to our Studio, Research and Fabrication divisions.

February 2021Director of Research Brad Samuels speaks at Harvard’s 2021 RealityxDesign conference

Student organizations at Harvard Graduate School of Design and Harvard Business School host RealityxDesign—a conference exploring how design shapes the multiple, blended realities that we move through everyday. Brad Samuels joins the panel of “Constructing Reality”, aimed at challenging the value of designers reinterpreting and reimagining the present.

February 2021SITU Research presents reconstruction methodologies to KSU’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative

SITU Research has recently shifted its focus to investigating police violence and excessive use of force against protesters in the U.S. This presentation explores how our investigations have leveraged citizen documentation of each event and merged it with digital reconstruction techniques to isolate and analyze key interactions from multiple perspectives and spatial contexts.

January 2021Human Rights Watch — “NY Attorney General Sues Police for Violence Against Protesters”

NYS Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the NYPD for their “excessive, brutal, and unlawful force against peaceful protesters”. The lawsuit cited the NYPD’s June 4 planned assault on protesters in the South Bronx, which SITU Research investigated with Human Rights Watch in a video analysis published last September.

January 2021SITU hosts virtual First Friday with the Architectural League

As part of the Architectural League of New York’s First Friday series, we are hosting a virtual tour of our practice and latest projects in studio, research and fabrication.

December 2020The Oregonian/OregonLive — “Judge finds city of Portland in contempt of order restricting less-lethal impact munitions during protests”

The Oregon District Court rules in favor of Don’t Shoot Portland (DSP) and protesters, finding that the Portland Police Bureau violated a temporary restraining order when using less-lethal weapons against a Black Lives Matter protest on June 30, 2020. SITU Research developed an event reconstruction of individual incidents of police violence for Don’t Shoot Portland’s testimony in court.

October 2020The Intercept — “Portland Reckons with Police Attacks on Protesters After Months of Unrest”

The Intercept covers SITU Research’s visual investigation of the Portland Police Bureau’s violent repression of a Black Lives Matter protest on June 30. This work was presented in the U.S. District Court in a case filed by Don’t Shoot Portland.

September 2020SITU Research joins virtual panel discussion on “Digital Evidence and Police Brutality”

Researcher Bora Erden discusses recent work at this virtual panel examining effective techniques for using digital evidence to litigate human rights violations, hosted by the UCLA Law's Promise Institute for Human Rights and The National Lawyers' Guild-LA.

July 2020Streetsblog—“Designing ‘Streets For Protest’ Won’t Work Because of Cops”

Streetsblog offers criticism on using design to address protester safety concerns, noting how this logic omits the responsibility of the police enacting violence. The article draws on our latest project with Amnesty International, which unpacks some of the ways in which urban environments can become “weaponized” in conjunction with the use of tear gas.

June 2020TimeOut New York — "See these new neighborhood testing centers proposed by a Brooklyn design studio”

TimeOut New York features our strategies for increasing access to COVID-19 testing around the city.

June 2020SITU to design New York City coronavirus testing centers

NYC DDC awards SITU and Jaklitsch / Gardner team a contract to design COVID-19 testing centers for NYC DoHMH.

June 2020The Architect’s Newspaper — “SITU Research teams with Amnesty International for video primer on tear gas”

The Architect’s Newspaper features new work from SITU Research for Amnesty International, which documents the abuse of tear gas worldwide and examines the dangers of this “less lethal” weapon.

May 2020SITU Research releases new video reconstruction documenting deadly protests in Nicaragua

In April and May of 2018, Nicaraguans gathered in record numbers to protest against their government. Violence resulted, and at least 109 people were killed. We reconstructed how three protesters died on May 30, 2018—during Nicaragua’s historic Marcha de las Madres.

May 2020SITU joins AIA Brooklyn panel to discuss how Brooklyn’s design community is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

Alongside the Van Alen Institute and Bjarke Ingels Group, SITU explores how architecture and urban design can help NYC strengthen public health in the post-COVID era, and in the process, deepen the city’s resiliency for decades to come.

May 2020SITU presents at NYC Builds BIO+ event on NYC’s response to COVID-19

NYC Builds BIO+ hosts a virtual roundtable on how professionals across the life science, construction and real estate industries have shifted their businesses to crisis relief. As part of the discussion, SITU presents strategies for improving COVID testing centers and distributing them more broadly across the five boroughs.

April 2020The Cooper Union — “Alumni retool studios to produce personal protective equipment”

The Cooper Union includes our Patient Screening Booths in their roundup of alumnae designing tools for COVID-19 relief.

April 2020Fast Company — ”Architects develop a COVID-19 screening booth for no-touch testing”

Fast Company features our Patient Screening Booth strategy for increasing COVID-19 testing and evaluation capacity in urban areas.

March 2020“Behind-the-scenes” of SITU Research’s latest project with Amnesty International

Amnesty’s Citizen Evidence Lab unpacks how we developed the SMOKESCREEN platform, a visual investigation into the lethal use of tear gas by Iraq security forces.

March 2020Working with Amnesty International, SITU Research launches new project on lethal use of tear gas by security forces in Baghdad

Through an exclusive new visual investigation, the project shows how Iraqi security forces intended to kill or severely maim dozens of protesters when they fired military-style grenades directly into crowds on the streets of Baghdad from last October onwards.

January 2020SITU Research joins UCLA roundtable on “Cultural Destruction, Technology, and the Future of Human Rights Practice”

Director of Research Brad Samuels joins Andras Riedlmayer, Hariz Halilovich and Robert Farley for roundtable presentations and discussion at UCLA, centered on exploring the use of geospatial technologies in human rights documentation.

November 2019SITU Research leads workshop on leveraging counter-surveillance at Creative Time Summit

SITU Research participates in this year’s Creative Time Summit—a three day series of events exploring the complexity of radical truth-telling. Our “Counter-Surveillance and Contested Narratives Workshop" guides participants on analyzing protests by leveraging citizen-generated footage and mapping techniques.

October 2019SITU speaks at Dartmouth’s Neukom Institute for Computational Science

Partner Brad Samuels shares SITU Research’s recent casework at the intersection of design, technology and human rights.

October 2019Partner Brad Samuels presents at UC Berkeley’s Landscape Architecture + Environmental Planning Lecture Series

Highlighting a range of recent projects in Ukraine, Mali, Nicaragua, the U.S. and elsewhere, this lecture discusses SITU Research's work at the intersection of design, technology and human rights.

August 2019The Alaska Design Forum features SITU in their multi-city lecture series, titled Polar Shift

Founding Partner Brad Samuels spends a week in Alaska, giving lectures about SITU’s interdisciplinary business model at cities across the state.

July 2019officeinsight — "Three-pronged Accomplishments at SITU"

officeinsight spotlights SITU and our cross-divisional work in their July issue.

May 2019Partner Brad Samuels joins international workshop on the destruction of cultural property during conflict

Bringing together practitioners across fields, this two-day event explores how evidence is gathered and used to prosecute intentional attacks on cultural property.

April 2019SITU Research participates in a multi-disciplinary roundtable on open source investigations at The Hague

Organized by Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, this symposium is part of an ongoing initiative to create international protocols for open source investigations.

March 2019SITU hosts Cooper Union Spring Trustees and Alumni Reception

SITU cohosts the Cooper Union's Spring Trustees and Alumni Reception alongside fellow Cooper alumni and Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbor Crye Precision.

February 2019SITU discusses architecture-based research with SVA’s Design for Social Innovation program

Partner Brad Samuels discusses the role of design in SITU’s unique research work as part of the Global Guest Lecture series at the School of Visual Arts.

February 2019SITU Research presents work on human rights violations in Nicaragua at Columbia University

SITU Research joins members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) to discuss their report on the violent repression of public protests in Nicaragua in April and May of 2018.

February 2019SITU Research work for the Rohingya crisis featured as one of Mapbox’s favorite community maps of 2018

Mapbox showcases our interactive platform for the Rohingya crisis as one of their favorite community maps of 2018.

January 2019Partner Brad Samuels presents SITU’s interdisciplinary work at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture

As part of the Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture, Director of Research Brad Samuels presents the interdisciplinary work of SITU Research reflecting on the expanded agency of the architect and the implications of technology across different disciplines.

December 2018SITU shares its interdisciplinary practice as part of Harvard GSD lecture series

Partner Brad Samuels joins Harvard Graduate School of Design for a second year to unpack SITU's interdisciplinary approach to architecture.

October 2018SITU discusses new tools for human rights accountability at UC Berkeley

Director of Research Brad Samuels speaks at UC Berkeley about harnessing the power of technology towards the advancement of human rights accountability.

October 2018SITU presents at Georgia Tech's Digital Building Lab Symposium

As technology is increasingly shaping our experience of the built environment, Partner Brad Samuels presents how SITU's interdisciplinary practice leverages digital and physical design methods to shape the built environment.

October 2018SITU speaks at The University of Utah’s School of Architecture, presenting new metrics for success within the field

As part of their School of Architecture Lecture Series on ETHOS, SITU discusses the role of user empowerment in architecture projects.

October 2018SITU hosts Workplace Wednesday event with Center for Architecture

We host a Workplace Wednesday tour of our fabrication shop and design studio as part of Center for Architecture's Archtober event series.

October 2018SITU Research presents work at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute

SITU Research is invited by Security Force Monitor to take part in the 20th anniversary event series "Resist | Decolonize | Create" at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute.

September 2018MIT Design Club: A Conversation with SITU

SITU joins the MIT Design Club for an overview of SITU’s interdisciplinary practice and a broader discussion on design-thinking as an opportunity for entrepreneurship and problem-solving across a wide range of industries.

August 2018Partner Brad Samuels speaks at Columbia Law School with the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute and AAAS

Joining the AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program, Brad is included in a presentation and dialogue about the future of geospatial evidence in international human rights litigation.

June 2018Architect’s Newspaper — "SITU Research and Amnesty International’s new interactive platform maps atrocities in Myanmar"

Architect’s Newspaper published an article about SITU and Amnesty International’s new interactive platform.

June 2018Mapbox — "Mapping human rights abuse: Amnesty International and SITU Research show the atrocities against Rohingya in Myanmar"

Mapbox published an interview with the SITU Research team about the platform that maps atrocities against Rohingya and turns a massive catalog of evidence into a poignant and striking interactive platform.

May 2018The New York Times Magazine — "Who Killed the Kiev Protesters? A 3-D Model Holds the Clues"

The New York Times published an investigative article on our reconstruction of events during Ukraine's Euromaidan protests.

April 2018SITU receives the President’s Citation Award for outstanding achievement in architecture from The Cooper Union

Presented at Cooper’s 2018 commencement, the award is given to alumni who have made important contributions to art, architecture, engineering or interdisciplinary studies.

April 2018Partner Brad Samuels speaks at the American Society of International Law Annual Meeting

Joining a panel on new technologies for criminal and human rights investigations, Brad presents SITU Research’s interdisciplinary work at the nexus of advocacy, fact-finding and technology.

November 2017Lecture on SITU's interdisciplinary practice at Harvard GSD

SITU’s Brad Samuels will give a lecture on SITU’s interdisciplinary approach to architecture at Harvard on Monday, November 27th. Sharing SITU’s story as an alternative firm model, Brad will explore how this nontraditional perspective has informed the firm’s output, staff and vision.

November 2017Partner Brad Samuels selected for Urban Omnibus’ advisory board

Dedicated to observing, understanding and shaping the city, Urban Omnibus is an online publication affiliated with The Architectural League of New York.

November 2017SITU Partner presents new architectural solutions for commercial real estate at WORKTECH 17 Toronto

SITU’s Director of Design, Aleksey Lukyanov-Cherny shares new approaches to updating and activating spaces within commercial buildings.

October 2017Partner Brad Samuels presents at Yale University Art Gallery

What role can the visual arts play in fact-finding and reporting on human-rights issues? This question will guide Brad Samuels’ lecture at Yale University Art Gallery on October 12th. Presenting casework from SITU’s research division, Brad will discuss emerging methods, tools and technologies for visual and spatial analyses of human-rights violations, focusing on the interdisciplinary nature of these efforts.

March 2017SITU presents L+ project at SXSW

Our L+ project to re-envision NYC libraries competes in SXSWedu's Learn by Design competition. 

December 2016Partner Brad Samuels delivers keynote at the American Association for Advancement of Science

AAAS—the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society— invited SITU partner Brad Samuels to speak at their annual Human Rights Day breakfast in Washington, D.C.

November 2016The Architect's Newspaper — "SITU Research’s online platform details war crimes in Sudan conflict"

AN delves into our work with Amnesty International.

October 2016SITU wins the Center for Architecture's First Annual Pumpkitecture Contest

Our "concrete pumpkin void" earned a "Pritzker Pumpkin" from the AIANY.

October 2016AIA — "Architects, designers thrive in Shark Tank-like competition"

The AIA reports on SITU Research competing at SXSWEco with our Spatial Practice for Evidence and Advocacy initiative.

October 2016SITU Research earns runner-up prize at SXSWEco

We presented our Spatial Practice as Evidence and Advocacy (SPEA) initiative at conference's Place by Design competition.

September 2016SITU Research launches interactive platform on Darfur with Amnesty International

The collaboration documents the use of chemical warfare on civilians in Jebel Marra, one of the most remote regions of Darfur. 

August 2016WIRED — "The Hague Convicts a Tomb-Destroying Extremist With Smart Design"

The publication explores SITU's work to leverage smart design in legal and advocacy contexts.

August 2016Artforum — "Defendant Pleads Guilty in First Cultural Destruction Trial at The Hague"

Artforum covers our collaboration with the International Criminal Court as it conducts its first ever trial on the destruction of cultural heritage.

July 2016The Real Deal — "New maps visualize disparity between assessed and market property values along Central Park"

This piece unpacks Section 581, our research project that visualizes how antiquated property tax codes contribute to inequity across Manhattan.

July 2016CityLab — "An Art Installation Visualizes the Boggling Tax Disparities Along Central Park"

CityLab covers our Section 581 project that renders visible the inequity of NYC property taxes.

September 2015Invisible New York named a finalist in Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards

Recognized in the City Solutions category, our project captured the informal housing networks within New York City, and proposed alternative solutions to support ground-up development.