This paper might be a pre-copy-editing or a post-print...
10
This paper might be a pre-copy-editing or a post-print author-produced .pdf of an article accepted for publication. For the definitive publisher-authenticated version, please refer directly to publishing house’s archive system.
Transcript of This paper might be a pre-copy-editing or a post-print...
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
This paper might be a pre-copy-editing or a post-print author-produced .pdf of an article accepted for publication. For the
definitive publisher-authenticated version, please refer directly to publishing house’s archive system.
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 1 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
6 issues for £9 + FREE iPad & iPhone editionsSubscribe
Digital Cities: 'Sense-able' urban designM E M S ( / M E M S ) / 0 2 O C TO B E R 0 9 / by C A R LO R AT T I ( / S E A R C H / A U T H O R / C A R LO + R AT T I )
21 shares0 comments!"#$%&
This article was taken from the November issue of WiredUK magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in printbefore they're posted online, and get your hands onloads of additional content by subscribing online
(http://www.magazineboutique.co.uk/home/mpurchase.asp?m=1207&src=W050)
pandayoghurt
U
Safari Power SaverClick to Start Flash Plug-in
b(/)
!
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 2 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
The full Digital Cities package: - Networked information will reshape our cities (/wired-magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-words-on-the-street.aspx) - London after the great 2047 flu outbreak (/wired-magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-london-after-the-great-2047-flu-outbreak.aspx) - Your neighbourhood is now Facebook Live (/wired-magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-your-neighbourhood-is-now-facebook-live.aspx) - The transport of tomorrow is already here (/wired-magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-the-transport-of-tomorrow-is-already-here.aspx)
Scholars back in 1995 speculated about the impact of the ongoingdigital revolution on the viability of cities. Only 14 years ago, themainstream view was that, as digital media and the internet hadkilled distance, they would also kill cities. Technology writerGeorge Gilder proclaimed that "cities are leftover baggage from theindustrial era" and concluded that "we are headed for the death ofcities", due to the continued growth of personal computing,telecommunications and distributed production. At the same time,MIT Media Lab's Nicholas Negroponte wrote in Being Digital that"the post-information age will remove the limitations of geography.Digital living will include less and less dependence upon being in aspecific place at a specific time, and the transmission of place itselfwill start to become possible."
In fact, cities have never prospered as much as they have over thepast couple of decades. China is currently building more urbanfabric than has ever been built by humanity. And a particularlynoteworthy moment occurred last year: for the first time in historymore than half the world's population - 3.3 billion people - lived inurban areas.
The digital revolution did not end up killing our cities, but neitherdid it leave them unaffected. A layer of networked digital elementshas blanketed our environment, blending bits and atoms togetherin a seamless way. Sensors, cameras and microcontrollers are usedever more extensively to manage city infrastructure, optimisetransportation, monitor the environment and run securityapplications. Advances in microelectronics now make it possible tospread "smart dust" networks of tiny, wireless,microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors, robots or devices.
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 3 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
Most noticeable is the explosion in mobile-phone use around theglobe. More than four billion mobile phones were in use worldwideby early 2009. Across socioeconomic classes and five continents,mobile phones are ubiquitous: they allow us not only tocommunicate with each other in unprecedented ways, but to createa pervasive sensing network that covers the whole globe.
One consequence of this process is particularly important: citiescan start to work as real-time control systems, regulated by anumber of feedback loops. In past decades, real-time controlsystems have been developed in a variety of engineeringapplications. In so doing, they have dramatically increased theefficiency of systems through energy savings, regulation ofdynamics, increased robustness and disturbance tolerance. Now:can you have a city that performs as a real-time control system?
The city already contains actuators such as traffic lights, remotelyupdated street signage, etc. More profound actuation is relativelyproblematic: for instance, we cannot double the size of a street inreal time if we detect traffic congestion. However, unlike other real-time control systems, cities have a special feature: citizens. Byreceiving real-time information, appropriately visualised anddisseminated, citizens themselves can become distributedintelligent actuators, who pursue their individual interests in co-operation and competition with others, and thus become primeactors on the urban scene. Processing urban information capturedin real time and making it publicly accessible can enable people tomake better decisions about the use of urban resources, mobilityand social interaction.
This feedback loop of digital sensing and processing can begin toinfluence various complex and dynamic aspects of the city,improving the economic, social and environmental sustainabilityof the places we inhabit. For example, an automated trip plannerthat relies on real-time information about bus, train and taxilocation, as well as congestion and pollution levels, can helppeople find not only the fastest travel route, but the one that alsohas the least impact on air quality. A simple real-time feedbackmechanism between citizens and emergency-rescue units couldavoid the repeat of tragic mistakes like those that affected NewOrleans before and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Feedbackloops could grow inside each other: buildings could becomeprobes and ambient displays, but also evolve into real-time,responsive devices in their own right.
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 4 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
The implications for architectural aesthetics are interesting. Forseveral years now architecture has attempted to mimic in formalterms the rapid flow of digital information. We can think of anynumber of fluid buildings. Unfortunately, once built, shapes thatare designed to look fluid tend to end up frozen in concrete orsteel. Antoine Picon, professor of the history of architecture andtechnology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, haspredicted that with the city incorporating digital technology intoits very body, architecture itself will conversely become morerestrained.
Picon's view is heretical. He compares work by architects such asZaha Hadid to the Baroque architects of the 17th and 18thcenturies who were "obsessed by questions like the trajectory oflight inside churches and its spiritual meaning". Like ourcontemporaries, says Picon, Baroque architects preferred to imitatemovement in their work rather than create buildings that mademovement easier. Picon predicts a return to the Neo-Classicalapproach. We'll see more "compositions that remain voluntarilyrigid in order to be functionally more efficient" and a"digital/minimal attitude in which unwanted agitation issuspended".
In 1963, the British architect Cedric Price created the idea of a FunPalace. "Every town should have a space... where the latestdiscoverings of engineering and science can provide anenvironment for pleasure and discovery," he said. We need FunPalaces for the post-digital era.
Carol Ratti is an architect and director of the SENSEable City Lab atMIT
Want more Wired UK magazine? Get your copy everymonth by subscribing online today
(http://www.magazineboutique.co.uk/home/mpurchase.asp?m=1207&src=W050)
This 3D printer createsobjects from 10 materials atonce08/25/multimaterial-printer-mit)
READ NEXT(/news/archive/2015-08/25/multimaterial-printer-
mit)MIT
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 5 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
LATEST ON WIRED.CO.UK
Michael Bay is launching arange of 'augmented realitycomics' (/news/archive/2015-08/26/michael-bay-digital-comics-graphic-novels)
Amazon free delivery extendedto 13,000 pickup locations(/news/archive/2015-08/26/amazon-free-delivery-pickup-locations)
'Flu jab for life' on the horizon(/news/archive/2015-08/26/universal-flu-vaccine-on-horizon)
Moshi Monsters and BinWeevils broke ad-targetingrules (/news/archive/2015-08/26/moshi-monsters-bin-weevils-ad-complaints-upheld)
'Angry Birds' maker Rovioannounces major job losses(/news/archive/2015-08/26/rovio-job-losses-angry-birds)
This is what the world economyactually looks like(/news/archive/2015-08/26/3d-global-economics-map)
t
21 shares0 comments
Edited by M I C H A E L C O N R OY
$ START THE CONVERSATION
!"#$%&
COMICS AMAZON MEDICINE
GAMING ROVIO TECHNOLOGY
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 6 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
Nasa finds strange, shinymountain on Ceres(/news/archive/2015-08/26/ceres-mountain-nasa-dawn-new-image)
Cancer tumours'reprogrammed' back intohealthy tissue(/news/archive/2015-08/26/cancer-trial-breakthrough-microrna-plekha7)
YouTube Gaming launch seesGoogle take on Twitch.TV(/news/archive/2015-08/26/youtube-gaming-launch-twitch)
WIRED Awake: 10 must-readarticles for 26 August(/news/archive/2015-08/26/wired-awake-26-august)
Grand Theft Auto V modpromises spectacular visuals(/news/archive/2015-08/25/grand-theft-auto-v-mod-promises-spectacular-visuals)
UK Police double pirate site 'adhijacking' scheme(/news/archive/2015-08/25/uk-police-double-pirate-site-ad-hijacking)
'UK surveillance is worse than1984' says UN privacy chief(/news/archive/2015-08/25/uk-digital-surveillance-joseph-cannataci)
Wileyfox sneaks into view withCyanogen-based Androidphones (/news/archive/2015-08/25/wileyfox-british-smartphone-launch)
Russia unblocks Wikipediaafter narcotics debacle(/news/archive/2015-08/25/russia-blocks-wikipedia)
CERES SCIENCE YOUTUBE
WIRED AWAKE GAMING PIRACY
TECHNOLOGY SMARTPHONES RUSSIA
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 7 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
One minute's silence topscharts in Austria in asylumprotest (/news/archive/2015-08/25/raoul-haspel-silence-track-austria)
Stephen Hawking has found away to escape black holes(/news/archive/2015-08/25/hawking-black-hole-escape)
How to make power gel(/magazine/archive/2015/09/how-to/make-power-gel)
This 3D printer creates objectsfrom 10 materials at once(/news/archive/2015-08/25/multimaterial-printer-mit)
Watch Sony's airplane-likedrone perform vertical take-off(/news/archive/2015-08/25/sony-drone)
MIT unveils world's first 'crashproof' computer(/news/archive/2015-08/25/mit-crashproof-computer)
Open Bionics 3D-printedrobotic hand wins Dyson Award(/news/archive/2015-08/25/open-bionics-james-dyson-award)
WIRED Awake: 10 must-readarticles for 25 August(/news/archive/2015-08/25/wired-awake-25-august)
Pokemon shooting was avertedby paying attention to onlinethreats (/news/archive/2015-08/24/pokemon-shooting-stopped-because-online-threats)
RAOUL HASPEL STEPHEN HAWKING MAGAZINE
MIT TECHNOLOGY MIT
3D PRINTING WIRED AWAKE POKEMON
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 8 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
How to create a toothpaste(/magazine/archive/2015/09/how-to/create-a-toothpaste)
Police want white hat hackersto catch Ashley Madisoncriminals (/news/archive/2015-08/24/ashley-madison-reward-suicides-hacker-help)
How to cast using Lego(/magazine/archive/2015/09/how-to/cast-using-lego)
Apple's Tim Cook reassuresinvestors as Chinese stockmarket crumbles(/news/archive/2015-08/24/tim-cook-apple-stock-china)
US mass shootings blamed onhigh gun ownership and'American Dream'(/news/archive/2015-08/24/gun-ownership-mass-shootings-us-study)
Twitter blocks accounts thattracked deleted tweets ofpoliticians(/news/archive/2015-08/24/twitter-blocks-politwoops-diplotwoops)
Patient power will fix our ills(/magazine/archive/2015/09/ideas-bank/patient-power-will-fix-our-ills)
Don't let curiosity be killed bycats(/magazine/archive/2015/09/ideas-bank/dont-let-curiosity-be-killed-by-cats)
Ceramic 'magic spheres' makeoptical computers actuallypossible (/news/archive/2015-08/24/optical-computing-breakthrough)
MAGAZINE ASHLEY MADISON MAGAZINE
APPLE GUNS TWITTER
MAGAZINE MAGAZINE MOORE'S LAW
8/26/15, 11:57 AMDigital Cities: 'sense-able' urban design (Wired UK)
Page 9 of 9http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-sense-able-urban-design
© Condé Nast UK 2015
WIRED gets hands-on with thelatest power tool technology(/magazine/archive/2015/09/gear/hands-on-power-tool-technology)
XYZ Integrated Architectureremodels the chess set(/magazine/archive/2015/09/gear/xyz-integrated-design-chess-set)
Police thwart potential gunmassacre at Pokémon WorldChampionship(/news/archive/2015-08/24/pokemon-world-championship-gun-massacre)
MAGAZINE MAGAZINE POKEMON
tUK SITES
tWIRED INTERNATIONAL
tINFORMATION
