Nineteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

In urban-architectural grounds it does not seem extravagant to think about urban morphology as a close companion to innovative technological ruptures. Modernity in urbanism got enormously magnified with the innovative use of technological progresses. A foundational example is given by the vertical mobilities facilitated by automatic elevators that have turned Chicago into a model of city modernity, backed by lifts moving up and down the skyscrapers that sprouted throughout the city. Postmodern urbanism, on the other hand, would not have flourished in Los Angeles were it not from the innovations forwarded by the copious progresses released by new conceptual frontiers opened up by placemaking and placemarketing strategies. Finally, now, in the current third decennium of twenty-first century, a sort of meta-urbanism is in full progress in the most technologically advanced global metropolises, most notoriously in those standing out for their oil-rich assets. All in all, several new thresholds have been transposed thanks to the innovative technologies that have empowered the issuing of several patterns of new urban configurations, which in parallel encompassed deep societal change. Obviously, the state-of-the-art of the spatial disciplines has been always kept acutely fine-tuned to the ground-breaking adjustments liberated by dramatic technological advances. Alas, when we talk about modernist urbanism, the manifestation of some unwelcome phenomena such as the so-called placelessness must be mentioned. When discussing postmodernist urbanism, we must praise the unquestionable benefits of placemaking and placemarketing. Finally, contemporary urbanscapes are much in debt to the so-called place-based knowledge urbanism.

Presenters

Lineu Castello
Retired Professor/Researcher, Postgraduate Programme in Architecture, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil