Connected:
Things about cities, future and people
Connecting four european cities digitally
A project by Zeppelin (RO), Archis (NL), Nordic Urban Design Association NUDA (NO), Fargfabriken (SE), Eurodite (RO)
The project investigated the future impact of the new technologies upon the European urbanities. Developing concepts like smart city or smart communities; Connected seeked to reveal the future social and cultural mutations that tend to better valorize individuals and communities together with their human, creative and entrepreneurial potential. Combining the soft and human technology with hard technology is a driving factor in cities. NUDA contributed with Happy-Tat and Eatable Cities in addition to conceptual content on the more digitized issues later presented at the exhibitions.
As proposed through narrative and dramatized visions, the European space appears like a dense interconnected territory defined by complex rules and sophisticated standards of human interaction. While the linguistic barriers are probable to be spectacularly overcome through technology and the spaciousness to be diversely perceived due to highly increased future mobility, how this immense space is going to look like and how could Europe be redefined from the cultural and urban points of view?Given this framework, how are we going to use the cultural richness and diversity of Europe, when the globalizing technologies bring progressively more alienations as well as comportments and practices’ levelling?
The project included an exhibition opened simultaneously in Bergen, Amsterdam, Bucharest and Stockholm in the autumn of 2014, and several seminars and workshops held in each of the partner cities.
The 4four parallel exhibitions interconnected through video transmissions. The members of the trans-disciplinary groups involved in the project delivered lectures and debates (on City Thinking, Futurology, Art, Architecture, Technology) in those places as well as in other cities relevant for the NS axis of the project.
A trans-disciplinary documentation on the subject was produced and disseminated through a collection of articles published in magazines and on web platforms. A booklet distributed in partnerships with international transport lines helped collect additional ideas and opinions from the public, which was presented at the exhibitions. A mobile app provided for the exhibition guideline.
NUDA aimed to achieve the need to change mentality, from : “The city is a technical advanced machinery” to “The city is the habitat for humans with needs and dreams”; where one can provide for a possible solution to todays and tomorrows challenges concerning people and cities within the context of social and environmental sustainability.
The edible Stavanger east project was established in February 2013 and has a long-term and comprehensive angle connected to the development process in the area. The project was supported by the Norwegian government as a national pilot project within “a better city environment” in the program for future of cities 2013.
AMSTBUBE wants to facilitate and to help where needed, but first and foremost work with what lives among its rich and varied population. “Smart city” is often thought of as an urban environment saturated in sensor and feedback systems, constantly adjusting to need and demand. In this kind of reasoning, a smarter city is a technologically more advanced one, optimizing performance (safety, comfort and costs) by extending the levels of control. The perspective is that of the inhabitant as consumer and the city as competitor in a regional and global arena.
Who rules the city? The traditional set of players who determine planning and management of cities has gone through a major shift. The financial crises since 2008 were a major trigger, but also more social and cultural incentives can be indicated as forces in play. In current state, this is a legit question to put forward. In Bucharesti this was followed up as part of Connected.