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ANNIVERSARY ISSUE#25.3 JULY 2015

ATLANTISMAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR URBANISM

WHAT WAS, WHAT IS, WHAT NEXT

ATLANTISMAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR URBANISM

EDITORIAL

Atlantis Volume #25

Are you passionate about urbanism and would like to contribute? Contact us at: atlantis@polistudelft.nl

Welcome to this special anniversary edition of Atlantis!

It’s been just over 25 years since students, alumni and staff founded Polis and shortly after, its magazine Atlantis. Since then, the organisation and magazine have been carefully passed from hand to hand and seen times of remarkable change.

As such, we take this opportunity to reflect on this story line that we are part of, and explore a range of topics and questions relating to urbanism and landscape architecture over time. The articles collected here reflect on the past, critique the present and are provocative about the future.

Thinking about time serves us well. It opens doors to new critical terrain, aiding us in the development of new ideas and new drivers of change. To reflect and postulate on the surrounding world in such a way is to wield significant agency; shaping discussion and guiding action. However, this agency is by no means determinant. The future's direction is constantly shifting and remains uncertain, just as Orwell's vision for 1984 did not come to pass. Moreover, the past is far from a stable foundation from which to move forward, being continually open to interpretation and reinterpretation.

In our cities and landscapes this complex, shifting story forms layers: in spatial or architectural form, in memories and associations, or even the layers of earth beneath our feet. How we can grasp this multiplicity, depth and complexity, whilst still enabling new generations to play their part in the story, is one of the crucial questions we face, and that this issue of Atlantis attempts to address.

As we mark this anniversary, it's also an exciting time for Polis and Atlantis, as we look to build a more international network and continue to enrich the field of urbanism and landscape architecture at TU Delft and beyond. We hope you enjoy reading this magazine and find it thought-provoking and informative. If you’d like to contribute to a future edition, please get in touch with us at atlantis@polistudelft.nl.

Finally, this issue of our 25th volume marks a year of change. From a radically new editorial team to a new graphic style. I would like to thank our team members Ioana Ionescu, Maryam Behpour, Ting-Wei Chu, Jelske Streefkerk and Laura Garcia for their huge effort and enthusiasm, Eva van Rijen who joined us especially for this edition, and in particular Sarem Sunderland, Gijs de Haan and Alkmini Papaioannou for their patience and dedication in the graphic elaboration of Atlantis. I am specially thankful to Kate Unsworth, with whom we have shared responsibilities this final part of the year, and announce her as next year’s editor-in-chief. I’m sure that together they will improve the quality of our dear magazine. I wish you all success and a joyful experience publishing Atlantis.

On behalf of the editorial team we wish you enjoyable reading!

Luis Montenegro & Kate Unsworth

[1989]

Founding o

f Po

lis and A

tlan

tis

Fall of th

e B

erlin W

all

[1990]

Cre

ation o

f th

e w

orld w

ide w

eb

Releas

e o

f Nelson M

andela

[1998]

Founding o

f Google

[2003]

Gro

ene H

art Po

licy

[2008]

Destruc

tion of

BK Delft

by fire

Global r

ecessio

n & fin

ancial

crisis

World u

rban

isat

ion (m

ore

population in

urb

an than

rura

l are

as)

[2012

]

7 b

illion p

eople o

n the p

lanet

[2014

/15]

Hap

py Birth

day

Polis

and A

tlan

tis!

2

5

33

45

69

57

3

MANIFESTO // 5 TRACING MANIFESTOS LUIS MONTENEGRO, LAURA GARCIA & JELSKE

STREEFKERK // 9 INTERNATIONAL RIVER PARK 2050 ROBBERT JONGERIUS // 13

INTERMEDIARY BUCHAREST ALEX AXINTE & CRISTI BORCAN // 17 WHY TU DELFT

MUST CONTRIBUTE TO DEVELOPMENT IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH ROBERTO

ROCCO // 19 THE FUTURE IS HERE... LOOKING BACK AT US BURRASCA // 21 THE

VENICE PACT KRISTIAN KOREMAN & ELMA VAN BOXEL // 23 AN INTERNET OF BITS

AND BODIES CARLO RATTI & MATTHEW CLAUDEL // 25 THE ASTROLOGER'S CHAIR

RUPALI GUPTE & PRASAD SHETTY // 27 IN THE MARGINS MATTHIJS VAN OOSTRUM // 29

THE END OF THE FORMAL CITY ADAM WHITE // 31 WIKITERRITORIES STRADDLE3

EDUCATION // 33 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION AT TU

DELFT INGE BOBBINK // 35 PRODUCING ARCHITECTS LIANNE KLITSIE

// 39 DIVERSITY IN DESIGN TAEKE DE JONG // 43 POLIS TING WEI CHU

RESPONSIBILITIES // 45 PLANNING THE NETHERLANDS YOS

PURWANTO // 47 FUTURE PERSPECTIVES FOR DEVELOPMENT IN THE

GLOBAL SOUTH LAURA GARCIA & ROBERTO ROCCO // 51 25 YEARS OF VINEX

EVA VAN RIJEN // 54 SEARCHING FOR THE BIG ISSUES MARK HENDRIKS

FABRIC // 57 LOOKING OVER BEIJING JENS SCHOTT KNUDSEN // 61 BLOOD, BOND

AND NEIGHBOURHOOD RACHEL KEETON // 65 AFRICA JUNCTIONS LARD BUURMAN

PARTICIPATION // 69 NEW MEDIA, NEW CITIES FRANCESCA PERRY // 71

CITY GAMING FOR PLANNING IN THE 21ST CENTURY EKIM TAN // 73

PROJECT ACCRA SANAA DEGANI // 75 WORKSHOP MEKELPARK KRISTIAN SPASOV

CONTENTS

4

Cyborgs, intertwined human-machines, have fascinated man for decades. The first cyborg was a rat equipped with an osmotic pump; a complex means of enmeshed technology supporting biological life in a hostile environment.1 The project pointed towards the broader goal of “adapting man’s body to any environment he may choose, or, more specifically, a man-machine system that could one day maintain homeostasis in outer space, the ultimate landscape, the final frontier. The key to unlock new environments was reconsidering the human body itself, “permitt[ing] man’s existence in environments which differ radically from those provided by nature as we know it.

In a basic sense, the human is inherently a cyborg species, distinguished from the outset by its creation and appropriation of extrinsic tools. Weapons or fire or clothing,2 for example, enable us (and our ancestors) to inhabit environments we otherwise could not, in much the same way as the rat with the osmotic pump, bound for outer space. Humans create technologies that surround the body and support its physical survival.

Following in the progression of stone to silicon tools, humanity today could be described as a new form of homosapien, one with an entirely new tool. We have historically modified the physical self, extending capacities like speed and strength. Yet today’s tool is fundamentally different an extension not of the anatomy, but of the mind of memory, of identity and social function.3 The common denominator, it seems, is a deep entanglement and co-evolution between human and technological systems. “We of the modern age are provided with two types of bodies… the real body which is linked with the real world by means of fluids running inside, and the virtual body linked with the world by the flow of electrons.”4 One piece of technology forges the strongest link, arguably more transformative than any other: the smartphone.

Smartphones are powerful mini-computers enhancing humans’ logical and computational capacities, particularly because they are always available. Take, for example, remembering an address that

information can be stored in a phone’s contact book or quickly looked up online at any moment. Memory has been outsourced. The posthuman is a creature born into this binary condition, into a world of converged digital and material, where his mental existence is enabled, sustained and improved by technologies.

Beyond individual personal interactions, the global adoption of smartphones mass mobile communications are causing a societal shift. The majority of the global population is now instantaneously interconnected. Personal devices serve as a portal to externalize and multiply the self, to a conceivably infinite degree. The prosthetic smartphone has deeply permeated society, giving rise to a new networked humanism’ in which we are co-creating each other at all times.5 Tools have evolved from physical to mental to social.

But the story does not end here. Wireless digital technologies have made a radical pivot back to physical space. Humans are at the crux of bits and atoms: integrated technologies are profoundly transforming not only social identity, but corporeal inhabitation of architecture and cities. “This generation has developed physical and mental attitudes that call for a different kind of space, a space that can be deciphered through systems of clues and series of unfolding scenarios.”6

Through smartphones, the city is now continuously emergent, burgeoning inside of every pocket. Everyone has a lens through which to perceive and digest the city. Peering through this lens is intensely personal your smartphone locates you precisely in space and time, and it knows your preferences, schedule and consumer patterns. “Urban media are making deep inroads on a diverse range of activities of place making – be they the top-down deployment by government agencies or the bottom-up appropriation by urbanites in their every-day life.”7 We have created a new dimension of the city, a new mode of interacting with and in urban space. “The abstract motifs that compose this landscape confer on it something mysterious, even magic… a re-enchantment of the world.”8

An Internet of Bits

and Bodies

byCarlo Ratti andMatthew ClaudelMIT, US

“You are a cyborg every time you look at a computer screen or use a cellphone device.”– Amber Case, Cyborg Anthropologist, TED Lecture, Dec 2010

atlantismanifesto

23

Each smartphone communicates in real-time with a constellation of phones, businesses and systems surrounding it. Applications are becoming increasingly robust, enabling real-time everything, from Uber (citizen taxi cabs) to Grindr (matching nearby people for social or romantic interactions). Always-on devices connect the majority of the human population, to each other, to physical places and to dynamic processes.

Smartphone adoption and embedded technologies are transforming what was formerly a communications network into a sensing network. A whole class of applications appropriate embedded hardware in the smartphone that is intended for other purposes for example, using a phone’s accelerometer to detect pace, or its camera light to measure human pulse. These take advantage of the always-on prosthetic device to implement ‘viral sensing’ at a large scale. Another class of digital technologies link the phone to external hardware to extend their capabilities. These piggyback devices work symbiotically with the phone, taking advantage of its high-power computing and high-speed network. Among other effects, this has given rise to the uantified Self ’ phenomenon. A variety of quantified self gadgets, from bracelets to pins, can track your daily activity, including steps taken, heart rate and sleep patterns. Not only are smartphones our window to the world around us, but now a lens into our bodies.

We have taken the first step toward a seamless exchange of information to and from our bodies: data is constantly recorded, uploaded and downloaded in real time. The first generation of truly commonplace cyborg technologies includes pacemakers (mechanically supported hearts), cochlear implants (allowing the deaf to perceive sound), and visual prosthetics (cameras that input directly to the brain). Yet these devices are all one-way transfers of information. The next step is quickly approaching, as a variety of wearable and ambient devices become a constant two-way conduit of information between the body and the network. Biomedical researchers at the Imperial College, London, have developed an intelligent insulin pump that senses and responds in real time to the glucose levels of diabetes patients, sampling blood every five minutes a first glimmer of human-integrated technology that allows two-way flows of information. Humans are about to be directly enmeshed with the ‘Internet of Things’.

As more and more bodies go online, detailed external analysis of the collective quantified self is becoming possible. At the moment, quantified-self technologies do not go far beyond confirming what you already know. When you wake up in the morning, your possible bracelet-integrated phone will announce that you slept poorly the last thing you want to see as you roll over, rub your eyes and blink through a splitting headache. But in the future this data will extend

"...through smartphones, the city is now continuously emergent, burgeoning

inside of every pocket..."

beyond the individual, and broader human patterns could be revealed. A new uantified Us’ might map a human biome, on the scale of community, city or country.

The city of cyborgs is being recast as an Internet of Bodies. By its original definition, the cyborg is a cybernetic organism, but networks may turn us into a cybernetic species. This erodes the fear of an impending ‘singularity’9 machines will not become an autonomous, aware (and malignant) system; rather, they will become sentient as they interlace with human consciousness. Far more likely than apocalyptic singularity is that the two become seamlessly merged. Ultimately, the human-augmented machine (that is, the machine-augmented human) will always be superior to exclusively machine or human systems. Returning to the original idea of the cyborg increasing the capacity for survival in a new or

di cult environment the cyborg as Internet of Bodies holds true. Humans empowered to work together will improve humanity. The new cyborg is a networked human machine, augmenting the individual through other individuals, as humans have always done.

References1 Clynes, Manfred, and Kline, Nathan. “Cyborgs and Space,” Astronau-tics, September, 1960. (p.26-27, 74-76)2 Leroi-Gourhan, André. Gesture and Speech, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: MIT Press, 1993.3 Picon, Antoine. “Architecture and the Virtual: Towards a New Materiality,” Praxis 06: New Technologies New Architectures, 2004. (p. 114-121)4 Ito, Toyo. “Mediatheque of Sendai,” from Toyo Ito, Witte, Ron, and Kobayashi, Hiroto (eds.), Munich, DE: Prestel with Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2002.5 Case, Amber. “We Are All Cyborgs Now,” Lecture at TED Women, Washington, DC, December 8, 20§.6 Picon, 20047 de Waal, Martijn. “The Ideas and Ideals in Urban Media Theory,” from Foth, Marcus, Forlano, Laura, Satchell, Christine, and Gibbs, Martin, (eds.) From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen: Urban Infor-matics, Social Media, Ubiquitous Computing, and Mobile Technology to Support Citizen Engagement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011. (p.5-20)8 Picon, 20049 V igne, Vernor. “First Word,” Omni Magazine, January, 1983.

atlantismanifesto

24

Colophon

ATLANTISMagazine by Polis | Platform for UrbanismFaculty of Architecture, TU DelftVolume 25, Number 3, July 2015

Editor in ChiefLuis Montenegro & Kate Unsworth

Editorial TeamMaryam Behpour, Ting-Wei Chu,Laura Garcia, Gijs de Haan,Ioana Ionescu, Luis Montenegro, Alkmini Papaioannou, Yos Purwanto,Jelske Streefkerk, Sarem Sunderland,Eva van Rijen Kate Unsworth

Editorial Address Polis, Platform for UrbanismJulianalaan 134, 2628 BL Delfto ce 01 West 50 tel. 1 (0)15-2 0 www.polistudelft.nl atlantis polistudelft.nl

PrinterDrukkerij Teeuwen

Cover imageLaura Garcia, Luis Montenegro, Alkmini Papaioannou

Atlantis appears four times a year.Number of copies 550

Become a member of Polis Platform for Urbanism and join our network! As a member you will receive our Atlantis Magazine four times a year, a monthly newsletter and access to all events organized by Polis.

DisclaimerThis issue has been made with great care; authors and redaction hold no liability for incorrect/ incomplete information. All images are the property of their respective owners. We have tried as hard as we can to honour their copyrights.

ISSN 1 -

81

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