Category: Essays
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Essay: Shepherd, sheepdog; on people, robots and cities
My latest column for Dezeen addresses robotics and cities. I'd started writing this months ago, and some of the examples betray that. Still, it took me that long—usually on planes, trains but not yet autonomous automobiles—to find the time to edit it down. As usual, you can read the longer original cut below; the tighter Dezeen version is…
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Essay: ‘Urban parasites, data-driven urbanism and the case for architecture’, from Architecture + Urbanism, 2014:11
Please note: this post has moved over to Medium This follows the earlier post on this set of essays, which also features 'The Commodification of Everything' for 'SQM' and 'A sketchbook for the city to come: the popup as R&D', for AD. This one first published as: Essay: Urban Parasites, Data-Driven Urbanism, and the Case for…
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Essay: ‘A sketchbook for the city to come: the popup as R&D’, for AD ‘Popups and Parasols’
Please note: this essay has now moved over to Medium. This follows the earlier post on this set of essays, which also features 'The Commodification of Everything' for 'SQM' and 'Urban Parasites, Data-Driven Urbanism, and the Case for Architecture' for A+U. This one was first published as: 'A Sketchbook for the City to Come:…
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Journal: Three essays from last summer; networked urbanism
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“The secret, I think, of the future is not doing too much”—Frei Otto Around this time last year, at the family home in Brisbane, in the jetlagged early hours of what was ostensibly a holiday, I wrote a set of articles for three architecture-oriented publications—a magazine, a journal and a book—all concerning the dynamics of…
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Essay: On Tesla Powerwall, and the skirmish between Moore’s law and physical laws
My latest column for Dezeen explores the urban implications of Tesla's Powerwall battery storage product. Here's the original edit: — The product launch of the early 21st century is a well-honed little drama. It’s become as streamlined and archetypal as the automobile launches of the mid-1950s, half-dressed girls running their fingers down the fins of…
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Essay: Clockwork City, Responsive City, Predictive City and Adjacent Incumbents
This is the in-depth version of my column posted in Dezeen this week, around the impact of predictive analytics on cities. This version particularly uses public transport services and new transport startups as the pivot for its arguments, as transport (or transit, or mobility) is a fundamental aspect of city services currently being transformed, disrupted and…
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Essay: ‘Ego’: On masterplanning and London; plus, relaunch of The Journal of The London Society
David Michon recently asked me to write a piece for the new issue of The Journal of the London Society. I'm posting a version of it below. David has just taken over as 'honorary editor' of the Journal, and has produced a wonderful new issue. The London Society itself has been around since 1912, but despite…
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Essay: ‘Dark Matter and Trojan Horses’ e-book now on-paper, on-demand
Print-on-demand version of 'Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary'' A consistent request over the last couple of years has been for a physical version of my e-book for Strelka Press, 'Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary' (Read the background to that book here.) Potential readers either wanted a physical version…
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Essay: ‘Designing Finnishness’, for ‘Out Of The Blue: The Essence and Ambition of Finnish Design’ (Gestalten)
Late last year, my friend Marko Ahtisaari kindly asked me to write an essay on Finnish design. This was a little daunting, as it was a) for Marko, who I respect greatly, b) about Finnish design, which I can really only claim a kind of foreigner's passing understanding of, and c) to open a major…
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Essay: On the smart city; Or, a ‘manifesto’ for smart citizens instead
Please note: This piece has moved over here, in the publication But What Was The Question? at Medium. Please read, and link to, that version instead. ———– Oh, the smart city. I have “previous” here, over about a decade of writing about the interplay between cities and technology. And particularly, having written about The Street As…
City of Sound 