DATA CITY:DOOM OR BOOM

With contributions from Usman Haque, Haque Design + Research Ltd, founder of Pachube.com, CEO of Connected Environments. Dr Rachel Armstrong, Senior TED Fellow and Co Director of AVATAR, Architecture & Synthetic Biology at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Susannah Hagan, Professor of Urban Studies, University of Brighton, Director of R/E/D (Research into Environment + Design). Juliet Davis, Architect, Cities Studio Tutorial Fellow LSE

Thursday 8th July 2010

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Chaired by Ben Hammersley, Editor of Wired UK Magazine.

Usman Haque

Susannah Hagan

Dr Rachel Armstrong

Juliet Davis

THE APPLE STORE,
REGENT STREET

This debate challenged notions of the ‘data-city’: are pervasive digital devices and open data changing the way we interact with the city? Will access to data speed up the divide between affluent and poorer areas? Are we becoming ‘data dandies’- ‘wrapped in the finest facts and the most senseless gadgets’? Is open access to data creating a ‘Sim City’, or a ‘Sin City’?

This debate initiates part of a broader Building Futures project: “City 2.0”,examining the impact of emerging technologies on the built environment. Visit our new blog to track the progress of the project, read contributions from the Building Futures team and make your own comments.

Photographs courtesy of Alex Finn