Both the public sphere as well as the private, personal sphere have changed fundamentally in recent decades—both online and offline. The process of change, which is far from complete, confronts city planners and architectural designers with a tremendous challenge in their efforts to manifest in the form of buildings and urban designs the new interrelationships among what used to be discrete public and private spheres. Carlo Ratti (IT/US) interprets “public space” as a part of a zone (no longer all-encompassing) of a new world of work in which, among other things, exterior space is being used as office space. Geeta Mehta (IN/US) reports on her committed efforts on behalf of user-generated cities on one hand and global strategies for the acquisition of social capital on the other. A similar approach is taken by Kristien Ring (US/DE), who reflects on residential and commercial projects in Berlin in which not everything is subordinated to maximizing return on investment. Peter Androsch (AT), a man whose political activism has focused on noise pollution, talks about how city dwellers of tomorrow can raise their voices to really be heard.
Schedule
| 10 AM | Carlo Ratti (IT/US) |
| 10:30 AM | Geeta Mehta (IN/US) |
| 11 AM | Q + A |
| 11:10 AM | Kristien Ring (US/DE) |
| 11:40 AM | Peter Androsch (AT) |
| 12:10 noon | Q + A |
Moderator: Derrick de Kerckhove (CA)
Carlo Ratti (IT/US) is director of MIT Senseable City Lab.
Geeta Mehta (IN/US) is an adjunct professor of architecture and urban design at Columbia University in New York.
Kristien Ring (US/DE) is an architect, curator, and publicist, and founder of AA PROJECTS I Interdisciplinary Studio.
Peter Androsch (AT) is a composer, musician, artist, researcher, writer, and lecturer.
Derrick de Kerckhove (CA) is Scientific Advisor of the association Osservatorio TuttiMedia, scientific director of the digital culture magazine Media Duemila, research supervisor of the Planetary Collegium T-Node in Trento, and creator along with Maria Pia Rossignaud of the Atelier of Connective Intelligence.