The "new" model of privatized infrastructure

2012-07-09T19:22:00-04:00

all are really just a smoke screen for a much deeper set of political and even philosophical issues that will impact urban dwellers in the near future, especially as more than half’s the world’s population will soon be living in cities. That set of issues centers around the delicate dance between public and private ownership of space, both in the cloud and on the ground.

Earlier this year Jan Chipchase, Executive Creative Director of Global Insights at frog – the global design and innovation company, wrote "The Networked Urban Environment" which explored a contemporary-future of cloud-urban infrastructures such as; “smart” car, “smart” parking and payment systems, and “smart” cities. While in these days of austerity, recession and crisis public/private partnerships promise, business-efficiencies, they bring possible pitfalls.

How buildings could "come to life"

2012-04-15T18:34:00-04:00

"Right now we are making deeply diffuse hovering, clouds of material that work together in very delicate ways but when we compress those all together we can see those working as roofs, walls that breathe, that filter light" says Philip Beesly a Professor of Architecture at Waterloo University

The buildings in our cities could quite literally come alive in the decades ahead. Spencer Kelly looks at a series of projects that will allow buildings and even the furniture in them to be able to sense how they are being used and adapt to changes in the environment around them.

Archinect - News

The "new" model of privatized infrastructure

How buildings could "come to life"