The rhetoric of smart cities would be more persuasive if the environment that the technology companies create was actually a compelling one that offered models for what the city can be. But if you look at Silicon Valley you see that the greatest innovators in the digital field have created a bland suburban environment that is becoming increasingly exclusive — European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda for Europe
Back in September Rem Koolhaas gave a talk at the High Level Group meeting on Smart Cities, Brussels, 24 September 2014. During the talk he asked what really makes a city "smart", and argued that it's critical for smart cities and governments to converge again.
h/t @Bruce Sterling
6 Comments
Smartwashing?
Well said Rem.
Best thing ever.
The simplistic diagrams, colorful graphics and treating people like infants speaks to what is happening as design+tech culture merge now with sinister aims, and the importance of architecture forgotten.
"I prefer the car not be a courtroom"
"The commercial motivation corrupts the very entity it is supposed to serve… To save the city, we may have to destroy it."
Architecture no longer expresses public values but instead the values of the private sector.
"City must stay the domain of the architect".
Some good points, but Rem is sounding older and older. Smart homes are not a thing of the future, but a thing of the present. And their ubiquitousness over High Architecture only indicates how architecture is failing the general public. So, Rem's lecture sounds more of a rebuttal instead of an informed critique/discussion.
All this talk about wifi and bike lanes from mayors, meanwhile 60 minutes does a piece on the crumbling infrastructure with thousands of dangerous bridges waiting to fail...reminds me how our system and media is no longer interested in reality but easy labels from teams of expensive PR hacks--smart cities blah blah. But hey, let's arm corporations with home surveillance systems!
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