A.D. In 2010, the city of Rio de Janeiro opened a high-tech command post operations center with a focus on 30 agencies. Supervisors oversee the staff, the center provides information on crime, traffic, and emergency preparedness to city officials, and helps officials anticipate and solve problems.
That is a vision of technology and urban life. Another, a unique vision for technology deployment in Rio six years later, at the 2016 Summer Olympics by Architect Guto Requena Dance Pavilion. The tent had a dance floor, mirrors that rotated in response to human activity, and lighting that changed according to the movement levels in the building. The goal was to increase socialization and spontaneity.
Between these two alternative applications in public places, MIT urban researchers Fabio Duarte and Ricardo Alvarez are clearly popular: dance pavilion, and the ever-evolving human and built environment, in contrast to deployment. Monitoring city systems as a tool for tracking technology.
“Everything works well, not just as planned, but as predictable,” says Doart. But they can’t really predict what will happen. We must not take everything that happens by accident out of city life. Surprise is important for city life. ”
Now, researchers at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, Duarte and Alvarez, have written a book on the use of high-tech tools to enhance gaming and creativity in urban areas. His book, “City Game-Believing, Technology and Space” was published this month by MIT Press.
The book argues that we can use technology to restore sustainability and innovation in urban design, says a professor at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and a senior research scientist at the MIT Senseable Cities Lab. We do not neglect technology. With technology, we can keep cities open. ”
In the book, Duarte and Alvarez discuss ways in which technology can make cities more playful. Some cities, they see, play as the main logic and explain this through creative design: Think of places designed for recreation: Las Vegas, Orlando, or Dubai.
“No one is moving to the city,” said Alvarez, a post-operative at the Senebel City Laboratory. “so that [the question] Yes, how do you use technology to create emotionally charged spaces? Because people want to live, people want to go there. ”
Both Disneyland and Disney World, in their book, like Dart & Alvarez’s list, accept the belief that experimental experience can create new urban shapes with design and technology – think about Disney monorails, Tomorrowland or Epcot.
“Walt Disney is deeply involved in urban work and seeks to provide a better way of life,” says Alvarez. “The first EPCOT center would not be a theme park. It would be a symbolic city. Whether we like it or not, we can be sure that his vision is still alive and well. Some architects may call it artificial or kitsch, but the fact is that people flock to these places. They use technology for fun and for fun and for historical purposes.
On the other hand, the authors point out that video games are becoming more and more popular in urban design, as the industry has developed an example of dozens of games in recent decades.
“The video game industry is similar to architecture and urban planning, because they both create interactive spaces,” Alvarez said. “Over time, [game developers] They learned a lot from architecture and planning. But in the imaginary world, they have a lot of freedom to experiment, to take concepts, and to explore their final form.
Alvarez added: “The game industry is about bringing people and testers to the design stage. You get feedback from people and you put that into the design process. This is the most common process that planning and architecture fields can use in the video game world.
The authors also suggest that imaginary facts can be a more powerful design tool than one might think by offering alternative ideas to designers. One child, as we have seen in the book, sees a playground in the park different from that of an adult; Virtual reality can similarly help some designers see space in a new way.
“The imaginary reality is powerful in his eyes,” says Doart. “Once you see this kind of representation, you can start playing with the world this way. When I can completely change the way I perceive the world with this technology, how can I design the world differently? ”
While working on the book, Duarte and Alvarez believe that their ideas have received a fair hearing from cities and designers, and they hope that they will be read by people with a lot of interest. Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto, described the new work as “a manual for building a better city and a better way of life for us and our cities.”
Duarte and Alvarez, for their part, acknowledged the need for new technology to improve urban infrastructure and systems. But they hope that it will be seen not only as a means to an end but also as a means to an end.
“Let’s try to use technology, not to predict the future or to create a better reality,” says Doart. I think we always have the opportunity to create new opportunities.
.