Cities cover 2% of the earth's crust
and account for 50% of the world's population. Does this statistic fully
highlight the importance of architects and designers in facilitating a
harmonious world?
Only if we assume that architects and designers are responsible for the architecture and design of cities. They are and they aren't. Cities as almost living things unto themselves, which we can certainly effect in particular ways, but which evolve according patterns in migratory networks, logistical networks, financial networks, informational networks, and so on. We may soon take for granted the notion that these impersonal processes have more to with the character of cities than any single master plan. This is not to say that we shouldn't think hard about design, quite to the contrary. But our focus should be on thinking of the world's cities as a single, massively-distributed urban organism, instead of little isolated fortresses.
Only if we assume that architects and designers are responsible for the architecture and design of cities. They are and they aren't. Cities as almost living things unto themselves, which we can certainly effect in particular ways, but which evolve according patterns in migratory networks, logistical networks, financial networks, informational networks, and so on. We may soon take for granted the notion that these impersonal processes have more to with the character of cities than any single master plan. This is not to say that we shouldn't think hard about design, quite to the contrary. But our focus should be on thinking of the world's cities as a single, massively-distributed urban organism, instead of little isolated fortresses.
http://bratton.info/projects/talks/interview-in-the-guardian-uk/
http://bratton.info/
http://bratton.info/projects/talks/on-the-nomos-of-the-cloud-the-stack-deep-address-integral-geography/
http://bratton.info/projects/talks/rubbing-the-clinamen-raw/
http://bratton.info/projects/texts/swarm-what/
