The public space in the networked city.
Global electronic networking not only has an effect on our private and professional lives - it also influences the public space of the city. How do architects and urban planners see the city of the 21st century?

Presentation: Michael Sorkin, Architect, New York, Florian Rötzer, Media theorist, Munich

• Michael Sorkin
  Architect and writer, New York
  Rediscovering urbanism - Introduction to the theme of the conference: The cities and their public spaces which define the spatial density and proximity of the heterogeneous are today being superimposed by the cyberspace which, through the medium of satellites and cable links, is expanding first and foremost close to traffic routes and nodal points in lowland areas. The displacement of key areas of urban life from the city will be accompanied by attempts to revive the city centres by transforming them into siteless locations ("non-locations") that are experience and consumption oriented. This will inevitably result in privatisation and increasing control over public spaces.

• Leon Krier
  Architect, Luxembourg/London
  The Urbanization of the Suburbs - our future depends on the vitality of our cities Barbarism can only be defeated by urban civilisation. Consequently, the stultified centres and subcentres of the city must be refilled with urban life. Even electronically networked man needs the vitality of the city square and an architecture which meets his needs and reflects the classical values of our culture.

• Daniel Libeskind
  Architect, Berlin/Los Angeles
  The city is a no-man`s land with a host of nodal points The suburbs represent the key challenge for architects and urban planners. For too long architects have failed to concern themselves with the urbanistic quality of their work. In the cyberspace era, however, most people will live and work in the suburbs and districts located outside the city centres, while the city centres themselves will have to take on new functions if they are not to turn into barren wasteland. How can urban life be introduced into the suburbs through urbanistic and architectural planning?

Urbanism and social communication in the networked city.
The city, once the centre for communication and creativity, has long since lost this function. In the future, important aspects of urban life will migrate to the networks and the subcentres that are growing up all around. How much urban culture does a city need to survive? What additional problems and which new opportunities will electronic networking bringthe city? Which functions does the city of the 21st century need to fulfil?

Presentation: Michael Sorkin, Architect, New York, Florian Rötzer, Media theorist, Munich

• Manuel Castells
  Sociology, Prof. of Planning at the University of California, Berkeley
  The informational city - between global economy and local society Information technology is based on a siteless economy of enterprises operating on the international arena. It is fostering the creation of a new form of two-class society, a development which is also being reflected in the spatial structures of cities and is transforming the latter into replaceable, emasculated nodes in the information flow network. How can we counteract this trend to a divided society and what chance does the city have of retaining its local identity in a world which is organised according the siteless logic employed by information flows?

• Saskia Sassen
  Political economy, Prof. of Urban Planning at Columbia University, New York
  The New Centrality - the Impact of Telematics and Globalization The cyberspace, the medium by which capital is concentrated in the worlds large metropolises, is giving rise to new hierarchical structures in the space and life of the city. Part of the population will inevitably remain excluded from the supply of information and whole cities and regions will become black holes of the information society. Does the active participation of the population in the networks and the creation of virtual public spaces provide a real opportunity to prevent the marginalisation of specific locations and population groups?

• Albert Speer
  Urban planner, Frankfurt am Main, Prof. of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Kaiserslautern
  The city of the 21st century must be intelligent The criteria for an intelligent city are based essentially on an intelligent, i.e. responsible use of resources, particularly as regards non-renewable areas. If the city is to have a future, new forms of cooperation will need to be found urgently which embrace everyone involved in the process of social change, the local authorities, the business world, local citizens and action groups. Electronic networking can make an important contribution in this regard.

• Rolf Kreibich
  Head of the Institut fur Zukunftsstudien und Technologiebewertung, Berlin
  Cyberspace and the consequences - an endeavour at an technological evaluation Global networking has been linked with very substantial claims and promises - enterprises it is said will decentralise and move towards more virtual solutions, workforces will work increasingly from home or in the country, media centres will allows users to make purchases, study and communicate with the outside world without ever leaving the comfort of their home and this in turn will reduce traffic flows and the pressures on the environment. How does the city feature in such scenarios? Which of the forecast trends will become reality?

• Wolf D. Prix
  Architect, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vienna
  Architecture is a dynamic process The complexity of the electronically networked city calls for new architectural solutions and a non-hierarchical construction system. Architecture can be regarded as a type of psychograph which reflects the current state of society.

• Wolf Singer
  Brain researcher, Head of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Hirnforschung (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research), Frankfurt
  The architecture of the brain - a model for the complex system of the "city"? The brain is the most efficient organic system we know. It is extremely dynamic, creative, innovative and adaptable, has a high capacity for learning, and exhibits an advanced level of parallel organisation which does not involve any decision hierarchy. It is easy to imagine that a complex organisational structure such as that on which the human brain is based would be efficient in all areas of society where the old hierarchical models have quite obviously had their day. Such areas include the centrally oriented city.

• Ken Sakamura
  Architect, Japan
  The cities of the 21st century will also be intelligent The Japanese project TRON was a pilot project designed to show what intelligent houses of the future could look like. Everything in these houses, right down to the air conditioning system, is controlled by networked computers. But what form will the cities take that are made up of these intelligent houses and what will life be like in these cities?

• Bernd Zabel
  Director Biospheric Operations, Biosphere 2, Oracle (Arizona)
  Biosphere 2 - experiences with a technical constructed living space Biosphere 2 in the desert of Arizona is a structure which is totally selfcontained. It has ists own clima and integrated nature and is neither city nor cyberspace. Which new perspectives for the future design of living spaces result from the experiences with this techno-world?

• Terry Wyatt / Christian Herdel
  Architects, London and Darmstadt
  Ecopolis Modern urban planning must be energy-efficient, environmentally aware and have as its uppermost maxim the revitalisation of urban life. The key issues that need to be addressed relate to the energy supply, the transport of passengers and goods, refuse disposal, the quality of air and water, and raw materials. Information technology should be regarded as an opportunity to reconcile city and ecology. A case study from the Frankfurt region (Frankfurt-Niederrad business region) shows how an uneconomical quarter of the city which is losing its popularity as an office location due to the advent of tele-work (distance working) can be turned into a bustling district filled with vitality and life.