How are information technologies changing public space?

How are information technologies changing public space?

This is a blast from the past...an article I wrote for the Van Allen Institute u Pubic Architecture in New York nearly 20 years ago....

Telecommunication technologies, by enabling new means of communication and exchange of information which are independent of the physical space of the city, create new types of space which are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere.  These "distributed" spaces, materializing from within the flux of networked global communications, alter social behavior and create new relationships to physical space which ultimately transform both the character of the city and its role within a society. 

Concurrently, the ability for individuals to be  present anywhere/anytime, and to develop identities of self and community constructed within a global as well as local context, transforms the notion of "the public"  by extending it beyond the boundaries of culture and locality. By means of a global communication/information network which reduces time and space to a singularity, new communities are emerging which are both broadly distributed in space and narrowly defined.  

This shift from a geographical to a networked organization of communities produces a two-fold change in society which reflects the simultaneously local (specialized) and global (universal) attributes of network technologies. The perceived threat to  existing communities by globalization compels a retreat to smaller, highly localized "micro-communities", even as the larger structures of nation and state are threatened by the transgression of traditional borders by similarly specialized, networked "macro-communities". As a result, public space, both physical and virtual, is being fractured into multiple, distributed spaces which serve discreet communities.  The overlap and intertwining of these distributed spaces forms a new, aggregate city localized in space but whose public identity is  defined more by the essentially private interests of these micro-communities.  It is this privatization of the public realm which characterizes the space of the new city as well as the changes to existing urban centers.

The impact of this shift is most apparent in the changing fabric of the American city where private interests dominate the urban planning and development process. In cities like New York, massive urban development projects like Battery Park City or Riverside South in New York City are essentially private enterprises with publicly accessible open spaces.   In suburban areas, what served as public space in traditional cities is now inscribed within the sprawling campuses of private corporations, office parks and the ubiquitous shopping mall.   Even the activities of local community groups tend to reflect a fairly narrow demographic viewpoint which is distrustful of broader public goals.  This shift away from a broad public realm toward coexistent private realms is reinforced by the virtual spaces of social interaction (discussion forums, web rings, email, chat rooms, mobile phone networks, etc.) whose fundamental attraction is the ability to  engage with others of similar interests or experience. 

While privatization may seem antithetical to the notion of public space, the transformations of society which are occurring as a result of global connectivity are as complex and  difficult to quantify as are their effects on public space. Even if the implicit mandate of the telecommunications revolution is "change everything",  the challenge remains for  the architects of these new public spaces, whether real or virtual, to recognize that the construction of a society which is responsive to its citizens requires the creation of places which facilitate broader understanding between individuals.  This, after all, is the essential role of architecture and design in the definition of the public realm.