Looking at the functioning of a big city – Paris in this example - in the 21st century will make the viewer understand how his own place in the city is changing little by little, courtesy of ever improving digital tools and virtual network evolution.
The urban environment in which we live today is already digital and offers a foretaste of tomorrow’s city. Functional microchips, digital networks and different kinds of maps intermingle. These sensors are transmitting binary data that is vital to managing the practical complexity of a city structure.
Not unlike functional maps, these layers of information interact with each other, are constantly being improved and modified to create an easier running of the city. We don’t change the urban computer, we just add new maps, new technologies...to be used by the city dweller to make their lives easier.
The management of wastewater, green spaces, public transport and other services are based on independent networks which have gradually been interconnected to create a complex superposition of private and public networks – which represents today the very heartbeat of a city structure. The city dwellers have followed a similar evolution in terms of social habits, mobility and consumer habits.
In this 2.0 city, the citizen becomes an active participant…