We have come to acknowledge new agents and tools in the making of architecture and the city. Large private tech-companies are not only investing in the built environment but also producing new technologies that fundamentally change the way we design and produce architecture. Consequently, they alter the way we live together. These private companies are taking over public space as a means of economic investment, shifting the responsibility away from the state.
Technology, as an accelerating tool, plays an important role in this shift from the public to the private. Artificial Intelligence and algorithm-based technologies mark a paradigm shift: technology is no longer neutral. There is no service without an aim, just as there is no company without an agenda. Algorithms and learning models are neither god-given nor fact-based; they are designed by private companies and programmed by humans.
ARCH+ Posthumane Architektur aims to explore how new technologies and agents are changing the way architecture is designed and built, and consequently, how humans live together. Through interviews with leading experts from the fields of architecture, technology, and politics, the issue seeks to reduce uncertainty and clarify the intentions and objectives of these emerging tools and agents.
This collaborative issue is based on the film 0213 Architecting after Politics by Brandlhuber+ Olaf Grawert and Christopher Roth.
With the Smart City discourse, technology companies are reaching far into the field of architects and planners. The basis for these developments is our (user) data, which not at least enable new planning and design tools. However, the algorithms, equations, and conclusions behind these tools and applications are not unquestionable truths. They are neither neutral nor objective or even factual. It is people standing behind them—data analysts and programmers, corporations and private networks—whose decisions shape our imaginations and determine how we live together.
The Smart City promises security, comfort, and sustainability without talking about equal conditions for citizens and living conditions. It thus undermines the traditional values of freedom, equality, and fraternity as social and urban planning principles behind the city. In addition, the marginalization of people through autonomous technology is increasing. In this technocratic vision, concepts such as the human being, the city, and society are nothing more than “algorithmic assemblages.” Therefore, the implications concern not only the social interaction but also our self-image. In this context, the role of architects is up for negotiation anew—or have they long since become obsolete?
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré
© ARCH+, Design: Meiré und Meiré