Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access theses, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.

Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.

Theses that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.

Title

City X

Access Type

Campus Access

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

Architecture

Degree Type

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Year Degree Awarded

2009

Month Degree Awarded

May

Keywords

Technology Virtual Urban Digital Landscape

Abstract

Today our cities have surpassed the industrial state that originally organized them, where our social network is no longer bound by the limits of the cities streets, sidewalks, blocks and city centers, but rather by our internet connection.

Our cities have become “global-cities” or mere hyperlinks to a global network of information where we have the world at our disposal at the blink of an eye. Technologies i.e. the internet, mobile technology, virtual environments etc. provide us with infinite information, connectivity, accessibility and even experience. One can argue that the way we live and experience our lives is directly associated with our technological capabilities and accessibility to these technologies. While this connectedness exists virtually through the streaming of data throughout space, it cannot be experienced physically. This network of information possesses relationships amongst itself as well as with everything else in the world. While our cities today have become digital melting pots, their image does not reflect the informational state of our society, but rather still resembles the industrial city.

Since virtual environments are nothing more then an extension of the physical environment, we cannot limit our perception of space to the way in which we currently experience it, but must understand the various levels of complexity which define the space in all dimensions. While Boston City Hall Plaza currently exists as a baron sea of bricks, it contains virtual information which digitally connects it to the rest of the world. This information, variable X, will be the cities design input to creating new spatial relationships, in turn circulating people into these programmatic voids, as well as reflect the state of our society.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/856697

First Advisor

Skender Luarasi

Second Advisor

Thomas Long

COinS