eeds or to enrich our lives but how easily it can be monetised. These properties are then transformed into mortgages and loans, new constructions, evolving into a never-ending consumption of space.
Perhaps architectural studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro wanted to speculate this reality with their building “Blur”. They wanted to prepare us for an extremely blurred and gray world within the cities are black and white, all the borders are divided, continuous and standardised.
But it can be misleading to see this movement as just increasing the number of homes or offices. At the same time, we live in a world where the ‘house’ is getting smaller and scattered in the city ². We live in cities where the restaurants replaced kitchens or the living rooms replaced by coffee shops, the bedroom is compensated by “love hotels”, therefore everything is intertwined. However, there are also unique opportunities for individuals to come together and even closer. Intermediate forms such as coworking and co-living create opportunities for collective goodness by crossing the borders between institutions or even families in terms of inhabitation.
However, collectively, we could undoubtedly dominate all these hazardous methods that consume the cities. This also means that nowadays systematically accelerated ideas and evolving systems are more appreciated than absolute monopoly.
We live in an era that the small can rapidly grow, and learning is more important than education. Therefore, it is also possible to create ‘asymmetric goodness’ in spite of the asymmetric inequality. Since the inhabitants of the city can easily gather around mutual causes, intentions, and purposes easier than ever before. If your network equals your net worth, you may use your network to fundraise for good. Communities gathered around common goals can actively take part in institutionalisation and fundraising, collaborating on critical issues such as the development of cultural infrastructure or the conservation of nature. Using digital platforms, similar needs and requests can be identified in cities and then resources can be used to benefit the community. As an example, the Luchtsingel pedestrian bridge is one of the earliest examples of the crowdfunding projects. The 400-meter-long pedestrian bridge which connects three different areas of the city since they lost the connection due to a couple of interventions such as the highway, was built with the help of the donations of locals through a virtual platform. The foundation established afterward which continues to provide services to develop the urban environment.
Likewise, the people who do not want to live through the stereotypical approach to housing or working can collectively create new formats together ³. Maybe then, we can talk about innovation.
Innovation – at least the one as we know- was not always in favor of humanity. The reason for the increasing welfare levels is not the implementation of the mass- production band or developments of moving machines. Because technological developments alone are insignificant. What translates them into the future is the intention of their use and their adaptation in our lives. In this context, I think that our future predictions are implicit in designing these innovations for our purposes. As technology develops so rapidly yet humanitarian goals are still immature, I sincerely hope that the real innovation will follow the compromise of equal spaces where everyone can benefit from innovations in cities.
1 “The Future Is Already Here – It’s Just Not Very Evenly Distributed.”: interview with William Gibson , Fresh Air, NPR, 31 August 1993.
2 Luca Molinari: The Homes That We Are, Nottetempo, 2017. Translation: Jennifer Knaeble
3 Joi Ito, Jeff Howe, Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future, Grand Central Publishing, New York, 2016, p. 26.