What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled "Urban Interactions," ArchDaily is working with the curators of the "Eyes of the City" section at the Biennial to stimulate a discussion on how new technologies – and Artificial Intelligence in particular – might impact architecture and urban life. Here you can read the “Eyes of the City” curatorial statement by Carlo Ratti, the Politecnico di Torino and SCUT.
Digital technology in the Information Age, and all its offspring, are having a significantly different effect on our lives than previous technological revolutions had. With the possibility to develop and produce in different and quicker ways, these new technologies allow us to use what we already have in a completely different manner. New technologies bear the promise of a more sustainable life.
The space that we move in will be aware of our presence and actions, and the vehicles we drive and the tools we use will be connected and communicate with us and each other directly. This opens a perspective on previously unimaginable possibilities of a different daily life coming true in the existing urban space. The future will not only be made of new buildings and spaces but will also reveal an entirely different use to what is already there.
Architects are ultimately interested in urban change caused by new ways of living and working, new infrastructure and urban facilities and different uses and management of public spaces. To be able to design for an unknown future we need to develop a proper understanding or informed intuition of this change. To predict the future based on what we know and can imagine today is hardly possible. However, it is possible to get a better understanding of what is already there and from that point onwards to identify and understand what is likely to change and what is not. Only then can we start to speculate on how to recover the future with architecture.
For planners/architects/designers, the challenge is to translate the impact of rapid changes – especially on energy, mobility, health and leisure – into planning and design questions. The question for us is: “how can the City of the Future be imagined? How can those smart innovations be introduced into the domain of architecture and urban design?”
By using Amsterdam as a living laboratory, graduate students, researchers and teachers have been exploring how these changes might affect this city. We aim to understand the structure of today’s Amsterdam, to explore possible future scenarios and to speculate on new architectural types and new ways of living in this city. By listening to the changes from the past, we foresee what is then coming.
About the Author
Kees Kaan is an architect based in Rotterdam, where he leads KAAN Architecten. At TU Delft he is currently Head of the Department of Architecture where he is also the Chair of Complex Projects. His research focuses on large-scale projects that characterize rapid global urbanization. In 2017 Kees Kaan was appointed one of the Principal Investigators at the AMS (Advanced Metropolitan Solutions) Institute.
Over the years he has built up a national and international portfolio of architecture, urban planning and interior design projects: notably the competition winning entry for the new terminal at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, the new Courthouse of Amsterdam and the Supreme Court of The Netherlands in The Hague. He is an international lecturer and sits on various juries and boards, both in the Netherlands and abroad.
"Urban Interactions": Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) - 8th edition. Shenzhen, China
Opening in December, 2019 in Shenzhen, China, "Urban Interactions" is the 8th edition of the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB). The exhibition consists of two sections, namely “Eyes of the City” and “Ascending City”, which will explore the evolving relationship between urban space and technological innovation from different perspectives. The “Eyes of the City" section features MIT professor and architect Carlo Ratti as Chief Curator and Politecnico di Torino-South China University of Technology as Academic Curator. The "Ascending City" section features Chinese academician Meng Jianmin and Italian art critic Fabio Cavallucci as Chief Curators.
"Eyes of The City" section
Chief Curator: Carlo Ratti.
Academic Curator: South China-Torino Lab (Politecnico di Torino - Michele Bonino; South ChinaUniversity of Technology - Sun Yimin)
Executive Curators: Daniele Belleri [CRA], Edoardo Bruno, Xu Haohao
Curator of the GBA Academy: Politecnico di Milano (Adalberto Del Bo)
"Ascending City" section
Chief Curators: Meng Jianmin, Fabio Cavallucci
Co-Curator: Science and Human Imagination Center of Southern University of Science and Technology (Wu Yan)
Executive Curators: Chen Qiufan, Manuela Lietti, Wang Kuan, Zhang Li
