Technology Infused Space Spreads

7/25/2019 Technology Infused Space Spreads

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2 | TECHNOLOGY CITY-TECH-SPACE | 3

This paper hopes to bring forth the ways in which technologyis infused/embedded within the city and space. Technologicallyinfused space, simply put, is one where machine or code is embed-ded within the built in ways that modify its nature spatially. Thespaces themselves cannot be studied in isolation fr om the socio-eco-nomic context around which they are built. Therefore our pursuittowards understanding spaces of this nature concurs with the socialconstruction of the spaces.

Technology has changed the way we go about our lives and the waywe negotiate with space. This transformation is not just about spatialperception, but intersects with notions of city and user.

CITY The spaces and rhythms of contemporary cities are radi-cally different to those described in classic theories of urbanism(Buck-Morss 1989). This section begins by talking about the con-temporary city, and the experiential qualities that come associated

with it, building on the argument that the uniqueness to this urbanexperience can largely be attributed to its technological bearings.Using Marxs historical materialism to establish the significance ofmaterial productive forces i.e. Technology in its capability to influ-ence society and cities, presents code and machine not just as neu-tral but political tools. The first section deals with the city and itsusers, and the economy central to its sustenance. It encapsulates theurban experience and the economic reasons of it being the way it i s.The urban experience is subtly seen as blended with technologicalreferences.

TECH The second section directly deals with these technologicalbearings, as a foreground to the urban experience. It is here thatDelhi is tested in the mould of the contemporary city. Technologyand its parameters are defined, limiting our scope to direct engage-ment with spaces. The resultant is a larger picture, linking an eco-nomic process to its technological means.

The spatial experience is enabled and dictated by technological in-terventions and solutions. The aim of t he City-Tech section is in en-capsulating the experience of the contemporary city and establish-ing the innate technological roots of this experience. A zoomed-inspatial experience which is of relevance to the practitioners of spaceis the focus of the third section.

SPACE The third section delves into the realm of technology-in-fused spaces beginning with its definition and scope. The paperunderstands these spaces as varying shades of grey, and instead ofclassifying, builds a conceptual framework to arrive at a narrative tolook at the ways in which technology-infused spaces are experienced

within the city. Hence it explore spaces in their attributes of perfor-mance, interactivity, transience, code, virtual, etc in the context ofDelhi.

Any discussions a bout Cities today are incomplete without includ-

ing ideas of surveillance and privatization, Globalization and digi-talization, c ybernetics and biometrics, power and authority. The endis a full cir cle coming back to the city, and connect the dots betweena globalizing world and technology. This section brushes on theseideas to put them together under the aegis of a technological per-spective.

A section for Architect s arg ues the need for practitioners of spaceto incorporate ideas of technology within the spatial discourse, andunderstand space from a technological lens rather than sleepwalkinto technological initiation.

While the premise of this paper is to shed light on the spatial possi-bilities enabled by technology, it also establishes through the expe-rience of the city, the irrevocable significance of technology in the

world today. A systematic approach of looking at spaces through the

possibilities of that space does justice to the subject of study, tech-nology infused spaces, while condensing simultaneous connectionsto theoretical discourse (surveillance, privatization, globalization,cybernetics, etc), types of technologies (virtual, digital, assemblage),and spatial commentaries (phantasm, etherea l, transience) thus cov-ering spaces alongside their politics.


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For the purpose of this seminar, technology is to be understood asthe drive for efficiency(as with machines), its active verb techniqueas an ensemble of means (Ellul 1964). However the technologicalprocess does not work in isolation from socio-political process-es. And more often than not, technology can be used as a politi-cal tool. When entering the spatial realm, technology takes formin machines, code, networks and assemblage (Kitchin, Dodge 2011)that together with the built modify and create new spaces. Thesespaces possess characteristics that are possible only because of thepresence of these technologies. These characteristics of space, arereferred to as the attributes of technological spaces.

This City, a Product of Technology.

The economic system of the city was facilitating and simultaneouslyfacilitated by a technological drive. In the Indian context, the eco-nomic reform of 1991 enabled a neo liberal capitalism in its cities.Foreign exchange and investment steadily stabilized the nation sal-

vaging its economic st ate. A steadily growing tertiar y sector of in-formation workers became the citys majority dwellers. The Indiancity was a land of opportu nity, and witnessed unprecedented migra-tion and an exponential growt h in urban population. For a capitalistfree market, the city dweller was a consuming mass. The market

became the center-stage of cit y economy. So much so, that the mar-ket and consumer culture gradually consumed the public real m. En-tire professional industries emerged, catering to strategize, manage,advertize and aid consumption. Multi-national giants establishedstakes within markets which became global in themselves. A strongunplanned response to all this presented itself in interstices withinthe formal hegemony of policy and planning. Slums emerged, so didpirate markets (Sundaram), resettlement colonies and urban villag-es.

> English is the principal language for the business transactions inIndia.

> India has the second largest and the fastest growing pool of tech-nical manpower.

> High availability of Computer literate, English speaking and educat-ed customer care professionals.

> India has the lowest manpower cost. Manpower cost is approxi-mately one-tenth of what it is overseas. The annual cost per agent inUSA is approximately $40,000 while in India it is around $5000.

The India AdvantageSource: Call Centre Calling : Technology, network and location -RaqsMedia CollectiveOriginal: http://www.delhicall.com/why-india.html

India today is an important global player, with immense economic potential. Its cities areteeming with information workers, dealing with abstraction, making for the majority of itsmiddle class (a 70.95% GDP contribution by the tertiary sector (Economic survey of Delhi,2005 -06) makes their voices heard over the urban poor). There are imprints of globalization,and efforts of the nation state to project a global image in a globalizing economy (like theCommonwealth Games). Large scale projects and events of global scales are also an effort topresent Delhi (and India, as in t he case of smart cit ies) as a node of investment, as the collec-tive vision and future aspirations of all parties involved. Major Indian Cities have becomescenters of services and business through which capital and other resources flow in and outof their economies.

The neo-liberal capitalist Delhi demonstrates the urban experience of the contemporarycity.

We,

live in gated communities.

consume and window-shop in technology enabled glass megamalls.

engage with each other through virtual means. Are used to being under constant sur veil-lance by third parties in our public spaces.

upgrade accessories and lifestyles.

walk through bright neon displays and hoardings selling anything under the sun.

casually shrug when we hear Do not touch any u nidentified object, it may be a bomb inthe metro.

attend the Delhi International Jazz festival every year in Nehru Park.


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the common, everyday objects of industrial culture have as muchof value to teach us as that canon of cultural "treasures" which wehave for so long been taught to revere.

Buck-Morss, Dielectics of Seeing

Technology-infused spaces

Technologically infused architecture is one where machine or codeis embedded within the built in ways that modify its nature spatially.Technology-infused spaces are hence spaces owing their attributes

to technologies, assemblage, technological artefacts, software andcodes. The placement of a telephone within a booth gives that spaceits function. The projection onto a screen is what facil itates the pur-pose of a cinema hall. It is these embedded technologies that allowspaces to perform in a certain way.

The notion of performance of space can stretch furt her from the tra-ditional notions of neutralit y, staticity and specificity of space. Spacemoves. Spaces changes temporally, transforms, flows into. How doestechnology enable these attributes of space?

On closer inspection one finds that some technologies function indeterministic ways in spaces. Most studies on software and tech-nologies focus largely on how it affects social systems and how theyare formed, organized and regulated only with relation to time andplace with the space in which they exist being a mere coincidence.

Hence, these accounts of the relationship of society and softwareare independent of the spatia l component. However, society does notfunction aspatially, but rather forms an important component shap-ing social relations with the intricate formation of layers of contextthat hold people and things together. Kitchin and Dodges Code/Space (2011) talks about the kind of space whose very spatiality de-pends on the existence of code to make that space function in a cer-tain way, some of which we discuss in our framework. These spacescan simultaneously be both global and local where it is grounded inspatiality in the local context while can be accessed and controlled

via network fr om anywhere in the world. One of the opport unitieswhen desig ning spaces that have code infused in them is how aspace can be made intelligent and how the sensors can be used bythe user to match their own preferences. It is ultimately upto thedesigner to provide for these as code steadily become a part of thedesigned space.

There is a multitude of ways and degrees in which technology hasmanifested in all disciplines, including space. Any attempt to classi-fy these spaces is but impossible because the technological processis constantly updating, moving forward, at the same time expandingepistemologically; with a plethora of interconnected manifestationsthat seem to overlap in a dense network of their material historiesand social construction. So rather than attempt to divide on thebasis of types of technologies, we chose to look at their spatial pos-sibilities.

Surface| Perform| Interact Stretch| Morph| Extend Network| Connect| Flow

Imagining space to be a contained entity, a bubble, defined in itsedges (as has been the purpose of walls in design); one can beginto observe this these edges are not as definite and that the spaceundergoes transformation. This transformation has broadly beenstructured into three kinds of transformation.

The first kind, Interact, is spaces that exist within their spatial ex-tents, but within that boundary find ways to facilitate function orallow new spatial possibilies within that space.The second, Morph looks at spaces that stretch these spatial ex-tents beyond four walls in their user experience into phantasmatic/

virtua l/simulated/cyber/digital space.Network covers this extension to the next level where space be-comes capable of connecting to another allowing mutual exchange,becoming transient or part of a network.

This isnt an attempt to classify but explore the ways through whichspaces transform, and build a narrative from there. (The imageabove is only but a conceptual marker for thin king about how spacesare experienced today, and not an attempt towards their classifica-tion.) More important than the narrative is the arrival to a collectiverealisation of innateness of a technological facet to spaces.

Fig: (top) attributes/

possibilities of technolo-

gy-infusd space

Source: Author


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Fig: (clockwise from top-

right) Paharganj at night,

Connaught Place arcades,

Ghantaghar electronic

market, Palika under-

ground market

Source:http://goo.gl/VShXhA,

http://goo.gl/1OpJFx,

http://goo.gl/GArQZs,

http://goo.gl/gur1JH,

Designers understand the effectiveness of these strategies in ena-bling consumption. The shopping mall, cultural centers like DilliHaat, open avenues of Connaught place, or much simply even provi-sions of selling vertical surfaces as advertising space is a careful de-

liberation of how spaces can be used to promote and sell consumerlifestyles. Needless to say thi s is a heavily debated issue that revolvesaround the loss of publicness, privatization, corporatization andthe ethics of people friendly-design, to the inevitability of capitalsystems.

Spaces transform. The use of a Wi-Fi routerallows the consumer in a caf to temporar-ily transform the cafe into their workspace.

A person engrossed in their phone or tabletin the subway changes the space around himfrom public into a private one. These trans-formations happen within the presence oftechnologies in that space, when some con-ditions are met. The cafe is a open to thistransformation for the timings that it is run-

ning, and till t he customer is consuming cof-fee while they work.

Fig: (top) privately en-

gaging spheres in met-

ro compartment, (left)

transforming workplace

in a cafe.Source: (original)

http://img839.imageshack.

us/img839/9921/63184872.

png ,

https://s-media-cache-

ak0.pinimg.com/736x

/80/2f/61/802f616e-

Interact

There are ways in which spaces perform in immediacy to their sur-roundings and interact with their users. Surfaces are, with muchsuccess, used in the contemporary city to disperse ideas of con-sumption and popular culture. There are visual stimuli of rapidly

changing imagery on streets, in public spaces, the metro, in mallsand shops, as far as the eye can see. The eyes are attuned to NeonDisplays and signboards, signage and graffiti; hybrid spatial ensem-bles that users interact with on a daily basis. The city experience isthese sensations.

The Global typology of Shopping Mall is carefully designed to usestechniques and spatial planning to entice and immerse the consum-er (Koolhas 1998). Much thought and investment goes into strategiz-ing and designing spaces that promote consumption. Klein (2010)talks about how culture has been surrendered to forces of market-ing in which the media plays a big role. Successful corporations arehighly focused on producing images which is a part of marketing forcreating wealth and cultural influence. Commodity as social evalu-ation is a stereotype that exists now more than ever. To add it this,Consumer credit allows the shopper to make purchases beyond the

extents of what physical cash used t o provide before, has consumer-ism spawning more dangerously than ever. Advertising and windowshopping exist on the premise of using every inch of vert ical surfaceto showcase material culture. McQuire(2008) looked at this very as-pect of technology on the built calling it media architecture. Mediahas pervaded the world in all forms and shapes and contemporaryarchitecture has incorporated it significantly. The spaces of our dai-ly life are invaded by economic space which is highly subjected tothe insistent market, communication, advertisements and buildingmeaning. (Carmona et al. 2003)

Spaces performing/interacting is best illustrat

ed in Delhi by lookingat the 100-acre cultural complex of Swaminarayan Akshardham,situated near the bank of the river Yamuna. A cultural-political-eco-nomic icon, today, it showcases Indias traditions of art, architec-ture, wisdom and spirituality. Technologically powerful machineryand computer systems are put to use to keep the attractions run-ning. Life size mannequins utilise a combination of robotics, fiberoptics, light and sound to portray scenes from the life of the youngSwaminarayan in the Hall of Values, an audio animatrix show. AnIMAX theatre show called Neelkanth Darshan that charts his lifefrom childhood to adulthood includes extensive use of aerial pho-tography and even a computer generated shot of the Mansarovar

Lake. The final attraction of the series is the Sanskruti Vihar boatride. Long boats, with the fore and aft designed to make them looklike swans, run on tracks that are concealed under water. The Yag-napurush Kund - musical fountains within a large step well echoes

Vedic prayers with a light and sound show.4D cinema halls, assembly lines, factories, recording studios, amuse-ment parks, light and sound shows. Spaces amalgamated with highend technologies are designed with an expertise on the technologyrunning that space. To the creation of these new infused spaces,the built becomes part of the machine. With dominant tech-spacesslowly becoming prevalent, the designer finds relevance by updatingtheir knowledge to include these technologies.


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The stimuli are not just visual but slowly responding to more thanthe one sense. Buildings and spaces are becoming more and moreinteractive to their users courtesy new technologies. Body scanners,heat detectors, automated systems that respond to occupancy, smartcards, biometrics, turnstiles are only but a few of the many imple-ments that have changed the way we experience and negotiate withspace. Sometimes a number of these technological objects work intandem to facilitate a process. As users experiencing space we havebecome used to standard procedures of navigating through the cityon a regular basis. The city experience is these procedures.

Getting into a bus from the back door, securing a ticket from the conduc-

tor, getting out from the front door. Getting in through a security check in,

entering the metro at the platform. Listening to music or engaging in phonescreens, exiting the metro, using the token to check out. Procuring Identity

card at the front desk of the American Center, going through a security

check, using the library, exit. What comes as second nature to us now,

these procedures are taught over time, conditioned as a result of living in

Delhi.

These procedures are systemic, assemblage of machines and codethat create order to spatial usage. A simple example would be, theprocedure to check into important public nodes within the city ofDelhi, the Delhi metro, Dilli haat, Select City Mall (or any othermall for that instance), embassies, corporate offices, Palika market isa sequence of actions on the users part, and technologies that makethis procedure possible.

Queue >

All belongings through an X-ray machine >Pass through a scanner >Frisking with a metal detector >Secure Belongings >

Use integrated circuit cards >Carry through...

Interactive technologies create impersonal systems with minimalmanual intervention. While they ease the labor involved and makecertain processes efficient, they are also responsible for creatinghostile public environments, subject people to compromise withrights to their own bodies, choice and freedom. Users of space needto question the relevance of these systems challenge their relevance

and dehumanized stature, as should practitioners of space. Whilethe politics of these systems, biometrics, scanners are subject of ac-ademic discourse, their position in design practice is rarely ques-tioned.

Among technology enabled surfaces, one innovation steals the show.The television screen is slowly slimming and growing as architec-tural surface, creeping in a big way into contemporary urbanism.These together with satellite networks and fibre optics that tran-scend regional or national boundaries have had a profound impacton the relation between media and public spaces. The integrationof media in public spaces have served to revitalize these places asthey had been on the decline when the society had withdrawn intothe private sphere(Harvey, 2003). In the larger sense globalization

is said to manifest when the notion of the world as an entity is per-formed by technology.

Vertical surfaces of wall and screens. Posters, billboards, digitalsignboards, advertisements, information displays and signage are

ways in which vertic al surfaces a re ca refully designed and invest-ed in to disperse information among users within a space. Thesesurfaces inform and direct popular culture as well as wayfinding inspace, largely public. They mostly benefit commerce within the city.

At the same t ime they also speeden up processes that would takemuch longer if they were manual, one cant imagine getting intothe metro without these systems that supposedly makes it all lesshassle-free. Systems like biometrics create failsa fe efficient solutionsto make tracking people and information easy, but this informationisnt safe from misuse either.

Within the defined space, funct ions change temporally when tech-nology intervenes. Space performs because technologies enabletheir function. Surfaces and screens inform spaces and what theyare intended for. Automated systems respond to users of space.These changes that occur within spaces ar e insufficiently accountedfor within the realm of design because of our ignorance towardsthese changes and their underlying politics.

Fig: technological as-

semblage and informing

screensSource: ViewSonic brochure.

Fig: Surfaces for adver-

tisement in GIP mall,

Noida.

Source: (original) http://

www.unitechgroup.com/im-

ages/gip-noida-pic1.jpg


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Morph

Some spaces are, because of machine or code, able to transform/change/expand their spatial and functional possibilities. This exten-sion is unique to these spaces in lieu of the ways in which space isextended. Unlike the third type, these kinds of spaces are stil l rootedto one physical space. The extension is dependent on that physicalspace, and there is no channelling or exchange between spaces (likein the case of the third type). Security/spy cameras coupled withscreen are allowing a convenient way to keep an eye over spaces, atthe same time dictating human behaviour a nd creating power over.

Digital screen are phantasmatic projections of real spaces. Spacesare merging with virtual. There is cyberspace.

When we look at spaces whose boundaries are pushed by the use oftechnologies, rarely do we comprehend the power of everyday ob-

jects of technological nature in t ransforming or stretchi ng spatialpossibilities. A central computer database allows us to access books

within a library much like a cashiers counter in a supermarket, with-out which the functions of both spaces get reduced to a large storagehall. A projector grants an auditorium function. Screens of laptopsand mobiles transform the space around the user into a private one.

Performative screens are transcending the boundaries of the pub-lic realm and are creeping into the private homes. The televisionscreen that acts as a portal to spaces far and beyond (Virilio, 1991)also pushes the extents of physical space into the screen. Imagine

a possibility when the screen becomes so convincingly capable ofaugmenting an idea of spaciousness, where sitting in a small roomone can forget the spatial limitations of the physical space, and ex-perience it as a spacious combination of virtual and real space. Prac-titioners of space are experimenting with these possibilities wherethe screen becomes an extension of physical space. The premise ofa cinema hall is in its ability to transport the viewer from the con-finement of the hall into an immersive (and momentarily spatial)experience. One sees an extension of space through the projectedsurface much like the television screen. Different from the visualinformative screens and displays of the first type which dont im-merse but inform, these ones are able to transport the viewer intosimulated space often by means of imitating or replicating physicalspaces and storytelling.

Virtua l spaces are spaces of computer progra mming, a condition

possible because of technology. Unlike physical space t hat we are fa-miliar with, virtual is unfinished, non-linear and non-dialectical. Itis a dynamic collection of lists, interacti ve three dimensional worlds,databases, online archives and search engines.

The virtual space performs an escapist role. The virtual is seen incontrast to the real, offering a way out of the drab of everyday life.Users within the city spend a considerable amount of time engaging

virt ually. Lovink (2002) brings forward the constant comparison be-ing made between the structuring of information and that of spaceusing architectural principles, in an attempt to better understandthe virtual environments that are in the process of being created.Despite their differences, one should not think of real and virtual

as opposites to one another. They both have an open a nd multidisci-plinary character. In fact, instead of attempting to make the virtuallike the reality, there should be an effort to infuse the strengths ofthe virtual world into the physical reality. This is already happeningin small ways in how architects, theorists and urban planners workin todays age by the use of computers and software.

Designers need to take into account this phenomenon of augmenta-

tion of physical space into digital, virtual and cyberspace, a possibil-ity which at the moment remains mostly untapped.

Any spatial discourse on technology is incomplete without mention-ing surveillance. CCTV systems are technologies that allow an au-thority to monitor multiple spaces from one space. These systemshave infiltrated not just in private residences and businesses butengulfed the public realm. As a result, spaces in the public realmobserve surveillance networks that control behaviour and can takeaway the publicness of a space when people are constantly moni-tored. In Delhi, one would usually not expect to feel that they areconstantly being monitored via sur veillance systems. It would be as-

Fig: (top) Extension of

space into projection

screen, experience of

a cinema hall, (below)

CCTV surveillance al-

lowing extended control

over public space from

the control room

Source: (original) NEUFERT,E. (2000). Neufert Archi-

tects data. Oxford, Black-

well Science, http://www.

mdpi .com/sensors/sen-

sors-15-23341/article_de-

ploy/html/images/sensors-

15-23341-g001-1024.png


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sumed to be confined to certain areas of high securit y. However, thehigh tech surveillance industry actually sees a very lucrative marketin India with estimated growth of 25% which already has a turno-

ver of 120 million dollars per annum (Sengupta, 2002). Surveillancecameras have already made their way in most major traffic intersec-tions in Delhi as well as in most apartments, offices, industries andshopping areas. This could have serious implications in how peopleperceive and behave in these spaces.

Most designers leave solving issues of safety and security to thesesurveillance systems without thinking of these implications. At the

same time, more community engaging spaces and ideas of eyes onthe street are employed in some spaces to prov ide sensible alterna-tive solutions to these problems.In these spaces, the space challenges its notion of association to aphysical space, and pushes out of it. This nature in spaces challengesthe practice of designers to contain spaces within walls. It spreadsout into adjacencies, into cyberspace, into ephemeral simulatedspaces. New territories of space and new experiences of traversingthrough these uncontained spaces calls for a new approach to de-signing such spaces.

Network

Spaces and more so infrastructures are now finding themselves in anetwork of exchange and interactivity to another spaces and infra-

structures via technology. Spaces of transience, of connectivity, ofexchange, networked spaces are seen in cities and spaces.

These spaces are not understood independently and function in atechnology enabled network. These include spaces that have grow nand in turn accelerated globalization, or because of advanced sys-tems (like mass transit, rapid rail, online banking, cybernetics, etc).Global types that emerge as a response to globalization are infactspaces that respond to a wider urban fabric enabled by technologylike a unified global organism. Examples of such spaces are largescale transit infrastructures, offshore banks, Multinational corpo-rations, Airports. Zooming in, Bank branches, ATM, Call-centers,cyber-cafes, phone booths, platforms are part of this picture justas well. These network-infrastructures are responsible for creatingchannels of exchange where physical distances between spaces seemto become redundant. Direct manifestation of technology in this

process is seen through the role of cyber channels and network sig-nals. But that doesnt mean some very physical channels of short-ened distance and time are not a result of technology. In both cases,our understanding of spatial distances and exchange has changedconsiderably. Both are a consequence of technology in direct andindirect ways.

The advent of information technology with telecommunications andthe internet has led to a restructuring of the cities with a completelynew system of network and nodes due to simultaneous spatial con-centration and decentralization that transcends the urban into na-tional and international/global levels (Wheeler, 2000). The futureimplications of digital communication technology on spaces is pro-

found where these are getting more and more integrated into thebuilt, their disappearance (since systems now are virtual and net-

works wireless) proves to be a thr eat to the archit ects usual designapproach (Mitchell, 2002).

Earlier, there was a stronger link between activities that were inclose proximity to each other while distant activities had weakerlinks. Even with vast networks of transportation systems, the dis-tance remained a major separating factor. However electronic con-nection networks have finally managed to bridge the gap, there is a

warp in space and time at the global scale because of i ncreasinglystronger interconnectedness of various distant nodes. (Graham andMarvin, 2001)

Although the dependence on space and time has been r educed, itdoes not necessarily imply that one can locate anything anywhere aslong as there is internet connectivity. This means that the depend-ence has only been selectively loosened (Mitchell, 20 02). Spaces stillcontinue to be relevant, but in new ways. For instance one can buymusic simply by downloading online, yet will have to still be phys-ically present at a barbers to get a haircut. The demand for qualityspace is addressed in a manner where one need not live near (orcommute to) a central workspace anymore. A consequence would beseen in the suburbanization and growing sizes of dwellings.

Some building types have been reconfigured and fragmented in

parts and divisions. A prominent example used to illustrate this isthe reduction in the importance of branch banks due to the pres-ence of ATMs and internet transactions. Money has liquefied. Thishas given way to large scale back offices and call centres. Same canbe said about book stores and other such retail which can be boughtonline and one only needs several centralized warehouses. This willnot only change the demand for built types wi ll also affect the trans-portation networks (Mitchell, 2002).

With these spaces, the idea of physical distance and adjacencies be-tween spaces gets questioned. The ATM can be scattered aroundthe city. The airport bridges the gap between point of travel anddestination and the plane becomes the buffer space between the

Fig: spaces of transience

between long distances

(top) 9h 40m buffer space

between Delhi-London

(below) 40m buffer space

between two nodes in

Delhi.

Sources: (original)

ht t ps : / / img0. e t syst a t -

ic.com/000/0/6175406/

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author


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two. Spaces become channels; time and distance reduce to parame-ters. Designers are faced w ith transient spaces, buffer spaces, spaceslinked across cities. Within the City certain spaces find themselvesslowly becoming redundant while new spaces emerge as conse-quence. Some spaces simply find themselves in new roles to stayrelevant.

Technology isnt inherently masculine or pha llocentric or ethnocen-tric, although certainly its modes of production and circulation areclosely invested in power relations. But in spite of this, it holds a cer-tain promise: it can be used in all sorts of ways with all sort s of aimsor goals in mind. It is both t he condition of power and a possibilityfor its subversion, depending on how it is used, by whom, and w ithwhat effects.

- Elizabeth Grosz, Architecture from the Outside

The urban experience within the city can be encapsulated as thatof shock and hypermobility and phantasm; the virtual is an exten-

sion of physical space. The spatial implications of technology are,although not explicitly mentioned, not hard to miss in our cities.Technologies (code and assemblage) have worked in tandem withlarger realities of cities today to modify/mutilate/morph new spacesand spatial experiences. The fact that technology has come to nego-tiate with the spatial experience of a user is evident.

Technology was aimed at making processes efficient, providingsolutions. Today it has come to a point where it is looked up to as thepremier means to solve issues of the individual, institution, econo-mies, ecology, urban and so on. We jump and see surveilla nce as thesolution to safety and security when we should be seeking socially

viable solutions. Biometrics are used to control a nd limit access tofacilities and spaces as much as to provide them. Notions of what ispublic have changed drastically to a point where we are used to seemassive privatization in our public realm. This dependence can be

both liberating and dangerous. Cities of today ar e intensely technol-ogy based, and if technology extends to wider audiences, so does allattached politics. The politics of community and politics of technol-ogy are interwoven. Unarguably, certain technologies are changingsocial patterns and molding society.

Spaces/Technologies are

Technologies/Spaces are

Cities/Spaces are

visual

interactive

systemic

screens

virtual

code-dependent

code-infused

global

fragmented

networked


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Epilogue, for Architects

The meanings and roles of architecture and urban design centeredin older traditions of permanence are irrevocably destabilised incomplex citiesthat is, cities marked by digital networks, acceler-ation, massive infrastructures for connectivity, and growing es-trangement. Those older meanings do not disappear, they remaincrucial. But they cannot comfortably address these newer meanings,which include the growing importance of such networks, intercon-nections, energy flows, subjective cartographies. Architects need toconfront the enormity of the urban experience, the overwhelming

presence of massive arch itectures and dense infrastr uctures in to-days cities, and the irresistible logic of utility that organises muchof the investments in cities.

-Saskia Sassen< http://artefact.mi2.hr/_a04/lang_en/theory_sassen_text.htm>

In recent times, architectural practice has increasingly become tech-nocratic. Although the top professionals are associated with termssuch as visionaries and artists, most mainstream architects spendmore time analyzing the flow of information which determines theentire array of complex technological built forms. In fact, in thisarea, an early 19th century architect would be much more similar toan architect of the Roman times than one belonging to the 20th or21th century (Braham, 2007).

As practitioners of space, ours is the only discipline that will ex-

plore the relationship between technology and space. Technologiesof code and artifacts have enabled new dimensions and possibilitieswhen integrated to the built. All urban malaise finds instantly grati-fying solutions in technology. Spaces as we knew before have trans-formed in their very nature. Some have become redundant; whilesome have found new ways to exist in the urban realm. Some newkinds of spaces have emerged altogether.

Most people and architects still associate the word technology withthe means and methods in which one can build physical spaces, yet,over the past few decades the term has gained added meanings atpar with processes of Globalization and Digitalization. With thischange in meaning, the need of the hour is to study the relation be-tween space and technology.

Technology -infused spaces are a reality of living in Cities every-

where. They are extr emely experiential and surround our ever ydayliving experience. In a consumerist era where technology is inevita-ble, architecture is on the brink of losing its cultural significance.Spaces are no seen as stable, static, rather are fluid and mobile.

What does it mean to occupy space today when users can simultane-ously manifest in multiple spaces via the internet? What is the pointof adjacencies when rooms that were next to each other c an now be

worlds apart?

As architects it becomes relevant t o engage w ith new technologi-cal spaces and to build a vocabulary to include ideas of the virtual,coded, ephemeral, dynamic in the design discourse. These spacesoffer immense spatial possibilities and solutions, and make spaces

dynamic at the same time as they become dependent on technol-ogies to function. We live in hyper-real cities, richer in their spa-tial complexity and variety that traditional notions of space can nolonger address. A standard notion about built is that the buildingis talked about as a static, fixed entity. Architecture has moved pastsimply occupying space by means of its enclosure. Architects needto begin dealing with space directly than around it. A technologicalperspective enables the architect to talk of the built as an experienceof spaces within it that move and change, even if the walls remain

fixed. One needs to build this technological perspective to find rel-evance in a rapidly Globalizing and Digitalizing city. For architects,this means breaking away from the traditional notions of space andembracing a vocabulary that embraces these new technological at-tributes of space, so that the architect becomes a relevant arbiter ina world where his relevance is questionable.


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