Distributed Urbanism: Cities After Google Earth / Edition 1

by Gretchen Wilkins

Overview

What form of housing will emerge in Dubai, where the majority of the population are non-citizens and the average length of stay is three days? How will depopulating cities reclaim vacant space, reorganize infrastructure and redefine their economic identity? What type of architecture results from the prevalence of airborne contaminants? What kind of urbanism does Google Earth produce?

Exploring the increasingly decentralized systems through which cities are organized and produced, Distributed Urbanism highlights the architectural practices that are emerging in response. Unlike early models of urbanism, in which centralized models of production, communication and governance were sited within a central business district, contemporary urbanism is shaped by remote, distributed mechanisms such as information technologies, (i.e. SatNav, Google Earth, E-trade, Photosynth or RSS web feeds) cooperative economic models and environmental networks, many of which are physically remote from the cities they shape.

Consisting of a collection of case studies on global cities including Rotterdam, Tokyo, Barcelona, Detroit, Hong Kong, Dubai, Beijing and Mumbai, Distributed Urbanism draws on these cities in relation to current events, urban schemes and demographic data. All the contributors, a combination of commentators on urbanism and architecture, as well as practitioners in the field, are admired for their work in the area of urban change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415562324
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/26/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gretchen Wilkins is Senior Lecturer in Architecture at RMIT University in Melbourne, teaching in the Urban Architecture Laboratory and is a co-coordinator of the World Architecture Workshop. Previously she was Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan and Research Fellow at the Japan Foundation. She is the editor of Entropia: Incremental Gestures Towards a Possible Urbanism (Champ Libre, 2008) and On-The-Spot: Atelier Hitoshi Abe (University of Michigan, 2008).

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors vii

Foreword Felicity D. Scott xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction Gretchen Wilkins 1

1 The City you can't see on Google Earth Ilka Andreas Ruby 7

2 Rural urbanism: thriving under the radar - Beijing's villages in the city Robert Mangurian Mary-Ann Ray 21

3 Rotterdam 1979-2007: from ideology to market communism and beyond Michael Speaks 43

4 Megahouse Hitoshi Abe Masashige Motoe 57

5 Borderland/Borderama/Detroit Jerry Herron 63

6 Rubble in the sand Johan Van Schaik Simon Drysdale 87

7 Density of emptiness Jason Young 101

8 Antisepsis Li Shiqiao 125

9 Beyond urbanism: Mumbai and the cultivation of an eye Anuradha Mathur Dilip Da Cunha 139

10 Resurrecting cities: instant urban planning - real-time urbanization and planners' new role in emergency situations Ignasi Pérez Arnal Oscar Yanez Del Mazo 155

11 Productive residue: the casting of alternative public space Dan Pitera 169

12 Bubble cities: islands, airports, and nomads Gretchen Wilkins 183

Bibliography 195

Index 199