// DATABANK - 'VISIONS OF THE CITY' [D. PINDER, 2006]

Utopia is envisioned to be an ideal place, where love and joy is felt by all its citizens, and a sense of community and a shared goal dominate the social structure. Utopia can be understood as an expression of a desire for a better way of being and living, the ideal condition or blueprint for a perfect future. The word utopia refers simultaneously to ‘somewhere good’ and to ‘nowhere’; the double meaning is found in the Greek compounds eu-topos [a happy or fortunate place] and ou-topos [no place]. Interestingly, all visions of utopia focus upon the city, so much so that it can be argued that utopia and the image of the city are inseparable. Utopian ideas vary depending on the ideological basis upon which they were formed. There are those who argue both that utopia is a fantasy which should be left to the pages of history, and others who believe it is a necessary element to the creative process of design. The main characteristic of the visions discussed in this book is that, for the most part, the instigators of the utopian plans insisted that they were not utopian in an unrealistic or impractical, belonging to a distant future or to the realm of fantasy, but rather they asserted that the transformation they imagined could be realised if certain changes to society and space were set in motion.

> The Demise of Utopia

During the 20^th Century, utopia has played a vital role in social and political thought and activism across the spectrum. For the S.I. and their avant-garde associates, a key task for radical political action lay in changing cities and social space.  Urbanism was not reducible to planning, but incorporated political questions about everyday life and urban culture.  They critiqued the alienating and image-saturated conditions of the post war era, the ‘society of the spectacle’ and advocated autonomous struggles against hierarchical power in all its manifestations. Many urban commentators have pointed out the numerous catastrophes and horrors to which utopian plans have lead arguing that utopian ideals have been too often driven by authoritarian principles, and too closely associated with totalitarianism, and that its demise should be welcomed. Perhaps, as urban designers, we should be looking upon the recent collapse of utopia as a reflective and long-term crisis of the city and of urbanity generally.  After all, utopia was the collective dream that drove the modernisation process in, by its capitalist and socialist forms.

> Utopia = Dystopia

In Thomas More’s so-called Utopia, and later in George Orwell’s 1984, harmonious social and moral order are maintained via surveillance; overriding traditional utopian values and confronting disordered spaces thus establishing a new order.  Has today’s ‘surveillance society’ fallen victim to these dystopian characteristics? Also the question arises as to the validity of utopian principles when one man’s dream-world is another man’s nightmare. Due to the diversity of opinion about what is a desirable state, utopia can be rendered completely worthless at best or deeply oppressive at worst. Chtcheglov believes utopia has been suppressed by dominant social relations and ideological apparatuses.  He argues that the realm of production and conveniences has overstepped an initial aim of alleviating material cares, and the urban landscape, a once charged and poetic realm, has become drained of mystery and passion, in what he describes as the “banalisation of city space”.

> Post-Utopia?

Our imaginations, haunted by the old archetypes, have remained far behind the sophistication of machines in the information age. With the rise of relativity in all spheres of life, and with the establishment of an increasingly mobile and machine-based society, architecture represents the means of experimenting with a myriad ways of transforming life, with a view to a secure synthesis of inhabitant and environment. There is a sense that any discussion of utopianism today is occurring ‘after utopia’.  There is a widespread feeling that utopian urban projects belong to a previous age, as remnants of hopeful but naïve thought, as depleted husks unable to respond to current social demands. The central paradox inherent in utopian thought for the would-be urban designer is just how to we set about attempting to reconcile the fact that utopia equates to dystopia, whilst simultaneously a lack of utopia amounts to the same?

> A Brave New World?

Utopia is a transformation of our urban consciousness. Fredric Jameson, the political theorist, argued that the question of utopia would seem to be a crucial test of our collective capacity to imagine change at all. Renowned sociologist Karl Mannheim once pointed out that the representatives of a given order will label utopian all conceptions of existence, which from their ideological/social/political point of view, can in principal never be realised.  If this is the case then surely utopia is completely inconceivable.  However, pursuing the inconceivable can still bring about positive change, and as the S.I. succinctly put it, “the transformation of everyday life requires the transformation of everyday space and vice versa”. So, what has become of the ‘utopian search’?  Whether such a thing exists is entirely down to an interpretation of what is utopia, and as Lefebvre argues, “Although utopia might be discredited, it should not be abandoned.” It is our responsibility as architects and urban designers to strive beyond the banal.  Utopian or not, we must plan the ideal city instead of settling upon the ‘good enough’ city, if the banalisation of the city is to cease its cancerous conquest of the urban domain.

// THE DIGITAL DERIVE

+ The Digital Derive - Wii-mote

This project, currently getting off the ground, is called 'The Digital Derive' and it is a digitally-mediated evolution of the original derive of the Situationist International movement. It is being developed as a system for measuring and mapping the extent to which the city contains potential obstacles for pedestrians' freedom of movement. The methodology has been developed in collaboration with three other MSA students [Nasar Ishfaq, Tim Marjot and Graeme Mill] and a London-based interactive designer [Pablo de la Pena]. The initial feedback regarding the methodology has been very positive, although the application of the methodology, its translation into an experiment into an aspect of urban control, will require some refining. However, the system shall be developed over the weeks to come, with the experiment being tested in Manchester this week, and officially online in Huddersfield next week.

The following is an extract from our first presentation of the system, explaining the concept and methodology of the Digital Derive:

[U]RBAN [M]OVEMENT [A]ND [C]ONTROL_The Digital Derive

METHODOLOGY

'An investigation into how urban control devices impact upon pedestrian movement within 'public' urban spaces.'

+ Historical Context_The Analogue Derive

The Situationist International, formed in 1957, developed criticisms of contemporary urbanism & postulated upon possible urban futures. They viewed the city as the principal location for the creation & maintenance of social interactions of domination, as spaces of alienation & control. For the S.I., the city was a highly contested territory, both politically & socially. They attempted to investigate the city via radical forms of geographical action & research, in an effort to instigate urban transformation. The S.I. viewed the city as a tool for asserting political oppression & control, & it worked towards the revolutionary aim of realigning urban society towards a participatory society.

The maps produced by the S.I. counter rigidly-functional urban plans, by suggesting alternate routes & passages through a fluid city. Derives, the name given to the process through which they wandered the city producing their maps, and often carried out during periods of extensive inebriation, were seen as more significant than the destination, & were seen as an alternative method to immerse oneself in the city & comprehend & synchronise oneself with its flows & rhythms. Debord’s maps embody a subversive attitude towards representations of the city, and they question notions of temporal & spatial orientation in their quest for future urban potentials.

+ Concept_The Digital Derive

The Urban Movement and Control system may be utilised within any urban space.  Using a defined geo-spatial boundary [250m² ], based upon a geographic grid reference system [based upon the Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference already in place], UMAC provides an objective, scientific, digital and non-place-specific means of investigating the influence of urban control devices upon pedestrians, via a mapping of their movement within public urban space. This is in complete contrast to the entirely subjective nature of the derives of the S.I., which were based upon notions of desire and individual decision making. UMAC is based upon a system of cybernetic direction determinants, consisting of a set of strict rules governing human movement – it is the logical digital evolution of the analogue psychogeographic theory.

+ The Digital Derive - process diagram [CTW 2010]

+ Process

Pedestrian movement is recorded and tracked simultaneously via three separate but connected devices. Firstly, the pedestrian’s location is tracked and recorded using a GPS-enabled iPhone, which recorded the geo-spatial location of the pedestrian for the duration of the experiment [the x- and y-axes]. Secondly, the acceleration of the pedestrian is measured using the accelerometer within the Wii-Mote device [the z-axis]. Both the iPhone and Wii-Mote are connected to a MacBook laptop, via Bluetooth, for the duration of the experiment, constantly streaming live data into a database. Thirdly, the entire experiment will be recorded using a video camera. This will enable a detailed cross-referencing between the movement data gathered and the nature of the physical space itself. The database, containing all the data pertaining to the pedestrian’s movement, can then be utilised to generate graphical representations of the information.

+ Cybernetic Rules

In order to ensure that the experiment is carried out in an objective and scientific manner, a set of arbitrary rules is required to eliminate the necessity for human cognition and decision-making. The essence of this experiment is to empower the space, and let it determine how the pedestrian navigates his/her environment. The rules are exclusively aimed at movement direction, and if a decision is required relating to a change of direction, a Random-Direction-Indicator system will provide the decision. The RDI is based upon a random output generator script, within Maya parametric modelling software. By removing human interference it is hoped that the experiment will provide ‘clean’ data, uncorrupted by the whims of human desire or resentment. The rule set is as follows:

01_You must stick to defined pedestrian paths.

02_You must always obey the Random-Direction-Indicator.

03_You cannot re-trace your footsteps.  If you are instructed to do so, re-consult the Random-Direction-Indicator.

04_Upon encountering a control mechanism you must pause for 30 seconds and relocate to the opposite edge of defined path/space and continue in the same direction.

05_Upon encountering a grid-boundary, you must stop, relocate to the opposite edge of defined path/space, turn around and continue.

06_Dead-ends must be treated as grid-boundary edges.

07_If there is no option to turn, move perpendicularly from the obstacle.

+ Urban Control Devices

CATEGORY 1_ Pedestrian/Vehicular Interface - [signage, markings]

CATEGORY 2_ Physical Mechanisms - [surface treatments, level changes]

CATEGORY 3_ Boundary Mechanisms - [signage, fencing, surveillance devices]

+ The Digital Derive - Wii-mote data capture

+ Data Capturing Equipment

_Smartphone [with GPS] - To provide locational data and map the route taken through each 250m² area

_Wii-Mote [with inbuilt accelerometer] - To provide data of acceleration and movement

_MacBook [with Bluetooth connectivity, DarwiinRemote software, Processing software and Random-Direction-Indicator scripting] - To record data directly from the accelerometer and host the Random-Direction-Indicator

_Video Camera - To record the physical experience and to allow for the effective comparison of data

+ The Digital Derive - GPS tracking test screenshot

+ Output

Having recorded the data from the GPS tracker and the accelerometer, computer software will then be utilised to collate the masses of numerical data, and effectively re-interpret them as simple graphs. These simplistic graphs will form the basis of more complex methods of representation and visualisation techniques. The analysis and representation of the data generated will provide a platform for the comparison of city spaces, in terms of the impact particular urban control devices have upon pedestrian movement, and will illustrate the extent of urban control within the prescribed zones.

PRACTICE

+ Experiment Zones

Segments within Manchester city centre will be used as a test zones.  Chosen for their geographical proximity and programmatic nature, the segments chosen are within Manchester’s Spinningfields and Northern Quarter districts.  Although these segments are only 1km apart, they are programmatically very different. The defined boundaries for these two zones have been determined by the OS geographical grid reference system, and as such can be easily catalogues and cross-referenced with other forms of geographical data.

[Further updates shall be posted in due course as this project develops into a fully-fledged methodology for studying the impact urban control devices have upon physical mobility in the city.] 

// DIGITAL META_CITY

+ Digital META_CITY - dissertation front cover visual

This is an extract from my dissertation produced during 2009/10, entitled the ‘Digital META_CITY’, in which I explore the rise of the virtual urban metabolism, and its architectural, social and cultural impact about the city. It represents a deeper study into issues surrounding the escalating ubiquity and pervasiveness of digital infrastructures and their increasing assimilation into every facet of urban life.

>> Abstract

Contemporary society is in the midst of a massive upheaval; an upheaval of a comparable scale to that of the industrial revolution. Social injustice, poverty, resource depletion, ecological devastation, congestion, terrorism, coupled with the relatively new concepts of ubiquitous instantaneous telecommunications, globally networked economies and institutions, and pervasive mass media; the city as we knew it is rapidly transforming, and the impact of these issues upon the spatial configuration and architectural expression of the city has been considerable.

Society is currently engaged in an evolutionary progression from the industrial age, and as a result, today’s cities are witnessing the formation of an increasing chasm between physical urban processes, mostly dating from the industrial age, and the newly digitised virtual urban processes of the information age.

This state of events is by no means unusual, however. Throughout the ages, society has always been a dynamic evolving entity, with the city, the principal manifestation of human civilisation, acting as the focal point for progression. Ever since the first cities, there has always existed within their internal workings, the potential for conflict between their physical and virtual urban metabolisms. Virtual in this sense refers to dematerialised processes, including the flow of information, cultural symbols or even political power, as opposed to physical processes such as agriculture, energy generation or transportation.

These ‘Analogue Cities’ have undergone spectacular collapses in the past as a direct result of urban metabolic segregation, and a failure to comprehend the importance of maintaining symbiotic connections between physical and virtual processes. The significance of this issue for the contemporary city is exacerbated by the sheer scale of today’s virtual urban metabolisms, and the global power, ubiquity and pervasiveness of the networks within which they operate.

The city is now being infiltrated and consumed by mass digitisation and the rise of the virtual urban metabolism. Urban designers and architects now have the opportunity to engage with the re-modelling of the city, to cast off its predominantly negative industrial age legacy, and embrace the potential of the information age future.

>> Aim

In the twenty first century, the city is confronted with a wide range of issues concerning its physical and virtual processes. Local and global network connectivity, societal inequality, economic instability and political volatility; all pose questions to the would-be urban designer – to what extent has the rise of the virtual urban metabolism transformed the city, and what impact has the digital transformation had upon architecture? How do we assess the impact upon the city of the digitisation of the built environment, in the hope of facilitating and directing future transformations that are required to ensure the functioning of the modern city during the transition into the information age, and its evolution beyond?

The answer to this predicament is an elusive one indeed. A grasp of the complexities of the city’s relationship between its physical and increasingly pervasive virtual metabolisms, and its ever-more significant digitised local-global functioning, is critical. Only with a solid understanding of these connections and processes within the urban domain, and the impact of the rise of virtual urban metabolism upon the urban fabric and architecture, can the true extent of urban transformation due to digitisation be known.

This dissertation will elucidate the impact of the virtual urban metabolism upon the city, and will demonstrate how the future of the city is reliant upon an urbanism that attempts to integrate its physical and virtual processes, via the re-conceptualisation of the city as a metabolic entity. Such a new approach to urbanism could result in a city that thrives economically, technologically, culturally and socially, through an in-depth understanding of its internal processes, and the symbiosis of its physical and virtual metabolisms – the Digital Meta-CITY.

>> Methodology

The dissertation will begin with The Metabolic City, in which the city, as the materialised form of numerous components and processes [or metabolisms] within human civilisation, will be de-constructed as a metabolic entity to illustrate the internal workings of its physical and virtual urban metabolisms. This section will also include a broad, but brief, sweep of the historical evolution of the city as a metabolic entity. The purpose of this is to provide a level of clarity, [beyond the metaphors and analogies often utilised to conceptualise the city], for viewing the city as an amalgamation and concentration of metabolic processes within complex physical and virtual networks. The digitisation of the flows of wealth, power and information within the city, and the rise of the virtual metabolism, in particular its two most influential networks, [that of the mobile phone and the internet], will also be explored. It is hoped that, having illuminated the metabolic evolution of the city and highlighted the recent prevalence of the virtual over the physical metabolism, that the question of the impact upon the city brought about via digital transformation can now be examined in more detail – has digital transformation ultimately had a positive or negative effect upon our urban evolutionary trajectory? And will the potential future intensification of urban digitisation have similar results?

A study of the urban landscape as a Digital Dystopia will be undertaken in the second section of this dissertation. The negative aspects of the digital transformation of the city are numerous but often veiled, and as such they shall be analysed in detail. Issues concerning the segregation of physical and virtual urban metabolisms, the divergent dual local-global functioning of the city, the new social and economic dilemmas due to increased connectivity, and the spatial consequences of the aforementioned will be examined.

To give a balanced perspective of the digital transformation of the city, in part three, the city as a Digital Utopia will be explored. The positive impacts of the digital transformation of the city are often somewhat more conspicuous than the negative, but they shall also be studied in detail. Issues concerning the symbiosis of physical and virtual urban metabolisms, the convergence of the dual local-global functioning of the city, the new social and economic advantages due to increased connectivity, and the spatial developments as a result of these issues will be examined.

In the final section, The Digital Meta-CITY, all of the fundamental issues discussed throughout the dissertation will be reviewed. Conclusions shall be drawn and speculations made concerning the impact of the rise of the virtual urban metabolism and to what extent it has transformed the city. During the course of this section, a tentative proposal for a new approach to urbanism and architecture shall take shape, the aim of which is to provide a useful structure upon which to model existing urban landscapes, and to guide the future transformation of the Analogue City into the Digital Meta-CITY. An important point worth noting is that the objective of this proposal is to construct a theoretical framework to aid the materialisation of a vast array of urban potentials within existing cities, rather than prescribe a physical spatial form – an open process of urban metabolic symbiosis, as opposed to a closed, spatially deterministic urban plan. An urbanism based upon the symbiosis of physical and virtual urban processes, within a metabolic conceptualisation of the city, may facilitate humanity’s transition into the information age and safely beyond into the unknown urban future.

// DIGITAL TERRITORY_WIRRAL

+ Digital Territory_Wirral - masterplan [CTW 2010]

The Wirral has been in a steady state of decline ever since heavy industry began to relocate from its locality. The departure of these key economic, cultural and social drivers left a huge void within the region. Its previous wealth was achieved through the full integration of cutting-edge industrial technologies and techniques into its cultural psyche, which enabled the Wirral to remain at the forefront of global industrial progress.

Could the Wirral regain its industrial-age position as a region of prosperity and affluence if it was ‘plugged’ into the digital world? In order for this strategy to have any chance of success, the Wirral would require a huge overhaul of its digital communication infrastructures, namely those facilitating internet connectivity and penetration. At the present time, the Wirral has some of the lowest rates of urban internet penetration in the country, and is all but by-passed by the current [and projected] digital backbone of the UK, and therefore the world.

+ Digital Territory_Wirral - UK internet connectivity [CTW 2010]

If the Wirral’s connective capacity could be massively upgraded it could acquire a share of the extremely centralised internet data capacity of London, and promote itself as a major new European node within the global information network, thereby gaining all the power, wealth and prosperity that this would entail. The objective of this aspirational project is to investigate a potential future for the Wirral, a digital future; one of digital integration with the global information network and a cultural shift towards the ‘e-lifestyle’ of the ‘network society’ – the Wirral transformed into a Digital_Territory.

// DIGITAL_TERRITORIES

This essay concerns the rise of the digital network culture and society that we are witnessing within our cities, and the subsequent impacts this phenomena is having upon the contemporary metropolis and its future evolutionart trajectory. It encompasses the theoretical postion of my studies into urban utopian models during the first semester of Year 5, and as such framed much of my research and development at the time, and probably will continue to do so for some time to come.

>> Digital_Territories

 

"Globalisation and informationalisation, enacted by networks of wealth, technology, and power, are transforming our world.” [Castells 2010a, p.72]

As society is taking its first tentative steps into the information age, it is increasingly clear that the contemporary city has become a highly contested territory. The rise of the global virtual network has produced the latest manifestation of the struggle between local-cultural and global-technological trajectories. The ascension of the information age, and the increasing impact of the digital urban metabolism, promise to radically transform our current perceptions of not only society and culture, but also our perception of place, and the future function of the city.

New digital technologies and the infrastructures to deliver them are becoming increasingly pervasive and ubiquitous within the city [Varnelis 2008]. The divergence of physical and virtual urban metabolisms, the crisis of global connectivity versus local disconnection, the flow of information and wealth within the globalised network of cities, and their resultant spatial impact upon place, have all become the dominant issues of social and urban discourse.

Cities now exist in two locations simultaneously – the traditional physical landscape and the digital virtual network. This dual identity will have profound effects upon the future form of the city. At present, the city exists as two distinct flows of energy, the physical and the virtual, which has resulted in increasing social, political, economic and spatial fragmentations.

The cities within the globalised network benefit from possessing the means to access all the information, [and therefore wealth], they require or desire. The digital infrastructures they contain are the result of colossal financial investment, and they serve to secure the future of these cities in terms of global financial, commercial and institutional influence. For those cities outside of the global flows of information and wealth, they suffer from massive social, economic and political isolation and exclusion. These urban regions are unable to compete in the globalised network of cities, and as a result they slip further into decline. This urban “tunnelling effect” of digital exclusion can be attributed to a poorer standard or complete lack of digital infrastructure [Varnelis 2008, pp.28].

It can be seen that the future of the networked city rests with its connective capacity, and its ability to integrate virtual-global and physical-local flows of energy and information.

 

>> Digital_Transformation

“Space does not reflect society, it expresses it.” [Castells 2004, p.85]

With this statement, Castells is pointing out that urban transformation and the spatial reconfiguration of cities is the result of cultural and social upheaval, and not the other way around. It can be argued that the rise of a new information age society and culture will undoubtedly result in further changes to the physical form of the city.

In the view of Castells, the future transformation of the city will centre on the main axes of function and form. Firstly, in describing the functioning of the city he states that the,

“Network society is organised around the opposition between the global and the local.” [Castells 2004, p.85]

He points out that although the dominant economic, technological, communicative and administrative processes within the city are organised around global networks, the everyday activities of work, play, culture and political participation are inherently local affairs. Interactions between and within cities have become increasingly multi-layered, with interactivity now being co-ordinated simultaneously within the physical and virtual realms. The scale of this duality of function has been somewhat exacerbated by the rise of ever-more pervasive networks, and the city, in attempting to respond to both conflicting logics, is becoming increasingly fragmented. Castells suggests that the future spatial form of the city will be dependant upon the resolution of the conflict between the ability of the city to connect and communicate digitally with the global flow of information, and to interact physically with its locality and society.

“Cities are structured and destructured simultaneously by the competing logics of the space of flows and the space of places.” [Castells 2004, p.85]

This capacity for dual communication means that the notion of place is more critical than ever before, as it not only accommodates network connectivity and facilitates digital communication, but also provides the physically-grounded traditional social and cultural functions of a city. The new-found dominance of the virtual network has not resulted in the collapse of the city as a built form. According to Mitchell, although forecast to the contrary by many ‘cyberprophets’, the rise of the virtual does not,

“[…] destroy the power of place: local cultures and advantages still matter.” [Mitchell 2004, p.210]

The all-encompassing ‘city of bits’ has not come to pass, and the primary function of the city now in the information age is to fully integrate the “space of flows” with the “space of places” [Castells 2004, p.86]; it has to become a digitally-compatible communication device stitching together both virtual and physical urban metabolisms.

>> Digital_Dilemmas

The onset of a new cultural revolution throws up many obstacles for a society to overcome. With the digital revolution, society will have to adjust to new ways of interacting, communicating, and working. Post-industrial visions of a utopian future based upon the limitless possibilities of the virtual, without the burdens of the physical world have not materialised, and in all likelihood never will. Varnelis is all-too aware of the naivety of the ‘go anywhere, always online’ notion of virtual connectivity.

“Far from the mythical distributed ideal that ideologists of technology claim it to be, the network has its own physicality, its own material presence.” [Varnelis 2008, pp.27-8]

Here Varnelis makes reference to the fact that although digital networks appear to be ultra-modern and ubiquitous, they are completely reliant upon an archaic infrastructural system based upon subterranean or submarine conduits. These cables of copper or fibre optics shuttle all the world’s digital information, and the data itself is concentrated in a highly centralised and vulnerable network of relatively few routes and exchange nodes. If regions are outside of this digital backbone then they will suffer the consequences of economic and social exclusion as Varnelis rather pessimistically states,

“Areas and populations outside of this logic are subject to the tunnel effect: they virtually don’t exist as far as the network and, hence, the dominant world economy is concerned.” [Varnelis 2008, pp.28]

This urban tunnel effect is the result of inequality in the distribution of new digital infrastructure. This is not a new occurrence however. Over the centuries, new technological innovations were more often than not distributed in those areas that possessed favourable characteristics, usually economic and institutional in nature. As an example, the creation of national grids eventually provided the majority of people with a reliable and secure supply of electricity. But initially, the grid was only available in the primary urban centres, such as London. As Castells suggests,

“The higher the value of people and places, the more they are connected into interactive networks.” [Castells 2004, p.84]

Mitchell also advocates the importance of place and proximity to new digital infrastructures to enable economic growth, but also in a rather cautionary tone mentions the need for equality in public policy in the distribution of new infrastructure when he stated,

“It will be economically vital to have […] the high-speed backbone in your vicinity. It will be an increasingly important competitive advantage if you have […] and equity considerations will motivate public policies that encourage wide and even distribution […].” [Mitchell 2000, p.19]

The digital backbone of the world appears to be developing and expanding along a similar vein to the national grid, and consequently a whole new round of social conflict will have to be overcome to resist the spread of digital apartheid. As Varnelis observes,

“[…] the global city’s connections create local disconnections.”

[Varnelis 2008, pp.28]

At the local level, people are increasingly forsaking physical interactions in favour of leading their lives online through social networking websites, mobile phones and television, the so-called “telecocoon” [Varnelis 2008, pp.22].

Despite this inescapable truth, two emerging technologies are poised to bridge the gap between the global and the local – the geospatial web and ubiquitous computing. The rise of Geographic Information Systems [GIS], such as Google Maps and Google Earth, have imposed geographic co-ordinates upon placeless data within the internet, and conversely left virtual traces across physical environments. This meshing of the virtual and physical is intended to reduce local disconnectivity whilst maintaining connection to the global network, through the creation of social connections via mobile networking technology. The convergence of the geospatial web with locative media and mobile networking technology will enable society to read, and leave behind virtual traces on the world, re-creating physical place as a digital map – the virtual has become grounded in the real.

This overlay of virtual data over place will enable society to have access to a whole web of locally applicable information, thus enhancing local connectivity and the social significance of place. However, it could also render place a prisoner of memory and ‘someone else’s’ experiences. It may also exacerbate the issue of digital exclusion for those without network access. And, of course, the rise in locative media will undoubtedly result in an ever-expanding surveillance culture within a ‘virtual police state’ society.

Clearly, the assimilation of global and local networks is a problematic task, and one which requires economically pragmatic and socially sensitive planning and execution strategies to ensure a de-fragmentation of global network cities of the future.

 

 >> Digital_Urbanism

The current global network condition does raise the question of an almost ‘chicken or the egg’ scenario – do cities require digital infrastructural intervention in order to take their place within the global network of information flow and achieve prosperity? Did these cities, by now within the global network, already possess the infrastructure necessary to be globally prosperous and competitive? Can new cities join this elite group? This surely is one of the most pressing issues for all urban planners and policy makers – for the city to survive in the information age it must be connected globally and integrated locally.

So what does the rise of the global digital network entail for architecture in the Digital_Territories of the future? Perhaps a new approach to urban design is required, one which has at its heart the issue of integrating global and local connectivity within the major flows of information, capital and culture. The spatial materialisation of such a city is open for debate. In Castells’ opinion, the information city does not exist as a concrete physical form but rather as the result of cultural transformational processes.

“[…] based upon knowledge, organised around networks, and partly made up of flows, the information city is not a form but a process, a process characterised by the structural domination of the space of flows.”

[Castells 2010b, p.429]

As such, the city is re-conceptualised as a network system of virtual and physical processes [or metabolisms], each working in a symbiotic capacity to enable the city to communicate at both the global and local scales. However, there is a risk inherent in the very idea of a global city – its architecture could become progressively more generic and homogenised. As many architectural and urban design commentators have pointed out over the past decades, architecture has become increasingly banal and predictable, especially in the fields of infrastructure. According to Castells,

“Because the spatial manifestation of the dominant interests takes place around the world, and across cultures, the uprooting of experience, history and specific culture as the background of meaning is leading to the generalisation of ahistorical, acultural architecture.” [Castells 2010b, p.449]

He acknowledges this very real danger, and suggests that perhaps an architecture more rooted in the locale, more contextually driven and reflective of the increasing heterogeneity of the network society can avoid the pitfalls of intensifying issues of cultural identity loss.

“The more societies try to recover their identity beyond the global logic of uncontrolled power of flows, the more they need an architecture that exposes their own reality […].” [Castells 2010b, p.449]

Mitchell, on the other hand, takes a much more optimistic perspective on the new networked city. In his book ‘e-topia’ he proposes a new digitally-networked utopia, one that could facilitate the transformation of society, economy, culture and architecture for the information age. He sets out his manifesto for urban transformation based around five themes: “dematerialisation, demobilisation, mass customisation, intelligent operation, and soft transformation” [Mitchell 2000, p.147]. These themes all have one major characteristic in common – they involve the replacing of outdated industrial modes of communication, infrastructure, design and manufacture within the city with new digital technologies and techniques facilitated by the advent of the network era.

The post-industrial city is already engaged in transformation as a result of the rise of the globalised digital network. The social, cultural and economic value of each individual city will determine its position within the network. For those cities unfortunate to find themselves outside the network, they are caught in a catch-twenty two situation whereby they are denied access due to a lack of connectivity, but yet cannot gain connectivity without access. The only escape is through massive investment in digital communications infrastructure, and the hope that the investment will be returned through the influx of new capital, information and people. The task facing architecture in the information age is to accommodate the mostly invisible functioning of the global network infrastructure, whilst simultaneously facilitating and encouraging interpersonal social interactions, and providing a significant cultural materialisation.

What is certain is that the traditional dynamics and metabolisms of post-industrial place have been irreversibly altered by the folding of power and information flows into the global virtual network. The prospect of a pervasive new urban future, that of a truly global ‘e-lifestyle’, is a very real one indeed.

>> Bibliography + References

> Castells, M. [2004] Space of Flows Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age. In: Graham, S. ed. The Cybercities Reader. London, Routledge, pp.82-93.

> Castells, M. [2010a] The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 2 - The Power of Identity. 2^nd ed. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.

> Castells, M. [2010b] The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 1 - The Rise of the Network Society. 2^nd ed. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.

> Graham, S. & Marvin, S. [2001] Splintering Urbanism. New York, Routledge.

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// WPA 2.0 COMPETITION - RE_AQUE[DUCT]

RE_aquæ[DUCT] is an urban prototype, entered into the WPA 2.0 international design competition on 03/11/09, and was developed in collaboration with Tim Marjot, Graeme Mill and James K. Thorp [fellow MSA students]. The following is an extract from our design intent statement:

"The context for this proposal is the particularly polluted and historic waterway that was integral in the launch of the industrial revolution; the River Mersey. Pollution levels throughout the Mersey were mapped at key tributaries, and the extent of  pollutants relative to population and building density investigated. As a result of our findings, the town of Birkenhead has been selected for our infrastructural intervention. This involves replacing existing infrastructure [road network] with a reinterpretation of historic infrastructure [canal network], combined with bio-technological processes [reed bed filtration] in a bid to prevent run-off pollutants reaching the river, and injecting life into an otherwise under-occupied area. We propose to introduce a series of capillaries running alongside the Mersey with the capacity to process polluted water flowing from the Wirral Peninsula; a large scale water run-off purification prototype in which canals are integrated with reed bed technology."

+ RE_aquæ[DUCT] - competition entry submitted 03/11/09

"In subtracting from ‘non-place’ and adding to ‘place’ we intend to provide scope for redevelopment, public circulation and potential leisure activity.  Through replacing roads with reeds in selected areas of high vacancy within the existing urban fabric, Birkenhead provides a model through which we can gauge the improvement in standard of living in relation to water quality and an increase in biodiversity. RE_aquæ[DUCT] provides a prototype for urban ecological intervention throughout the world."

The competition provided an opportunity to experiment with data gathering strategies, visualisation techniques, and an opportunity to engage in-depth with an urban region suffering from the many issues facing contemporary post-industrial society in the UK. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in securing a place amongst the shortlisted entries, but it proved a valuable exercise in innovative, radical urban masterplanning and prototyping.