Adaptation: Architecture, Technology and the City
“As the city becomes more technological, architecture will become more essential. Technologies are growing as part of the functioning of cities, and as a result, the design of the urban environment will take on central importance. But this shift won’t occur as we might think.” Bringing together a host of interviews, contributions, and art works, Adaptation: Architecture, Technology and the City is a preliminary study of digital technology in the built environment. The publication surveys the ways that technology generates new kinds of experiences in the city, as well as the spaces created in its wake, including outmoded infrastructure, glitch space, and public zones populated with tethered cables. If digital technology promised a smooth environment independent of the constraints of geography, Adaptation makes clear that the digital also overlaps with and complicates the physical
world.
Adaptation concludes by exploring the unexpected ways in which technology must adapt to the city. Most markedly, this can be seen in the rise of an ad hoc aesthetic where urban spaces are subject to continual updates and design improvisation. Adaptation argues that for digital technology to evolve, ultimately it will have to adapt to another technology—to the technology of architecture.
by JEFFREY INABA
On March 13, at the Walk-in Cinema, Jeffrey Inaba will discuss recent research projects led by his office INABA as well as those by C-Lab, a unit he directs at Columbia University. He will discuss the role of digital technology in cities, arguing that its best application is to enhance the technologies of architecture.