URD1509H S
Instructor: Alfredo Landaeta
Meeting Section: L0101
Thursday, 6:00pm - 9:00pm

The dynamic balance between all the elements that define urban life (survival, trade, social fabric, leisure) has always been mediated by technology.

Once upon a time, the sense of community, social life and interaction use to take place almost exclusively in the public realm. Shopping, socializing and entertaining was perfectly defined by where it took place, in the private realm or in public spaces. Or so the story goes.

Things evolve and change. We live in in-between zones; spaces that we think of as public are really not, facets of our lives that would have been traditionally considered private are becoming less so. The boundary between private and public has never been so porous. The share economy is changing our understanding of ownership. Smaller, denser, more diverse, more connected, more interdependent, all describe the predominant ways in which most of us live urban lives.

While our lives span all aspects of the urban continuum, framing and, to a high degree, defining these “experiences” is what happens beyond the residential realm and the workspace: the play space. This is the realm where we interact and come together as communities. It no longer is primarily public space, nor is quite private either. It is not totally spontaneous but is not quite planned. The flux between commerce (retail) and entertainment creates a social and sensorial infrastructure that greatly helps not only in defining the character of these places, but also in how we use them.

Is a commonplace to assume that mixed use environments are intrinsically good. Architects and developers use “retail at grade” is conjunction with buzz words like “activation”, “engagement” and “excitement” to boost up their descriptions of why any particular development will be not only successful, but great.

In reality, in a world where almost everything can be obtained on-line and delivered to your door, it’s only environments that are imbued with content and experiences that speak to our interests and passions, and that help us make real connections with others, that will capture our attention and where we will chose to spend our time. While the trends are becoming clearer, the physical and urban implications, and, more to the point, the Operating System that makes them work, are still largely unknown.

The course will be based on a combination of active research, discussion and presentations, is intended to be an exploratory seminar on the evolving relation and synergies between commerce and retail, entertainment and culture, technology and society, and how these synergies impact urban environments.

Organized in 3 modules, the class will explore what defines the “experience” of urban spaces:

Commerce has traditionally been a driving force for the very existence of urban environments, now, as before, in process of being totally transformed by technology, just much faster. As one of the forces at the core of traditional urban centers, Commerce, has marked every aspect of our understanding of urban life. In particular, the evolution of retail and retail spaces have had profound impacts on urban life, on development patterns and on the rise and fall and rise again of cities and neighborhoods.

Entertainment and Culture, understanding them as the activities that bring joy, amusement and cultural fulfilment, are seminal in the way we relate at an emotional level to urban environments. It can be argued that if commerce made cities, leisure made city life. The duality between entertainment and culture ranges from just plain fun to the pursuit of knowledge and personal and societal betterment, in whatever fashion it might be understood.

Technology and Innovation have upended traditional flows and relations between one and the other, changing in fundamental ways the way we shop and consume. If for better or worse, is still to be decided. But, can we really live in a digital bubble? Are digital communities a substitute for face to face interactions? While technology has played a pivotal role in the development of urban environments, fostering change and transforming our relationship with cities, the impact of the rate of change and the depth of disruption we have witnessed in the last years is only beginning to be understood and will have a powerful impact in, paraphrasing Sir Winston Churchill, how we shape cities and then how we are shaped by them.

By researching, discussing, and engaging in an open and fluid conversation on these subjects it is expected that students develop their own positions on the subject.