Urban morphology and the shaping of the transmissable city.

Abstract

Some recent work in architecture has begun to think through the implications of an electronically mediated environment - both in terms of new forms of spaces and of changes to existing ones. New possibilities are read as resulting from these new technologies not only in terms of shaping buildings but also in terms of new ways of thinking about existing buildings. This paper traces the work of architects, such as Marcos Novak, who have used this opportunity to think through post-Euclidean architecture, his TransArchitecture. Mike Crang outlines the case made for seeing space as fluid, folded in complex dimensions and eventful. However, such an approach raises political questions about what a plural city might look like. This is explored through the ideas of Lebbeus Woods to suggest that instability of structure may be linked to a progressive politics. City shape, it is suggested, should be thought of a morphology, a logic of changing and transmission, rather than a static shape.