Philips Design

Immersive technologies are reaching a tipping point where buzz words like convergence, ubiquitous computing, and web 2.0 are transforming social practices. How can designers make sense of these changes? A recent Philips Design probe reveals that,

Far from fading out, as some media reports indicate, Philips Design believes that there is serious attention being paid to virtual immersive spaces, like Second Life, as dialogue with virtual world residents uncovers what companies can achieve above and beyond public relations and branding activities

Urban Computing

Adam Greenfield and Mark Shepard, co-authors of Situated Technologies Pamphlet 1: Urban Computing and Its Discontents, together with Eric Paulos of Intel Research, will consider the opportunities and dilemmas of ubiquitous computing for urban life in this panel discussion launching the series. The Situated Technologies Pamphlet Series, published by the Architectural League of New York and co-edited by Omar Khan, Trebor Scholz and Mark Shepard, explores the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism: How are our experiences of the city and the choices we make in it affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics, and other “situated” technologies? How will the ability to design increasingly responsive environments alter the ways we conceive of space? What do architects need to know about urban computing, and what do technologists need to know about cities? How are these issues themselves situated within larger social, cultural, environmental, and political concerns?

Thanks to Cindy Frewen Wuellner for the reference.

How to See

The book How to See, written in 1977 by George Nelson,has just been reisssued. One of the most important designers of the last century, George Nelson deployed his visual insights to understand urban form at a deeper level. Grady Clay's The Reading of the American City is another classic work from this era. Together, these volumes teach us how to understand the fluidity and change of the city in its own terms.

2008 Smart21 Communities

The
Intelligent Community Forum, a nonprofit think tank focused on the broadband economy, recently released its list of Smart21 communities. These communities, ranging from Dublin, Ohio to Hwa Seong Dong Tan, Korea have been chosen for their innovative approaches to deploy broadband technologies to improve their economies and quality of life.

Art and the Politics of Public Housing

In Art and the Politics of Public Housing, Jacqueline Leavitt makes the calls of Jane Addams and John Dewey to make art a compelling part of everyone's experience relevant today. Drawing on the examples of Pico Gardens, Aliso Village and Aliso Extension (aka Pico Aliso), three adjacent developments in the Boyle Heights community of Los Angeles, she explores the varied ways art can be deployed to provide a community with a way to reflect on the politics of public housing.

Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images

Zenfolio | Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images | China Urban Planning materials presents close to 4,000 photographs,

The galleries on display here belong to the category of documentary photography. The main subject area is China and that country's rather rapid transformation from a rural to an urban-centered society. Taken together, these galleries constitute a visual archive that for the most part is meant to capture and to preserve information (or "evidence of certain developments" perhaps).