From Inhabiting Arts to Inhabiting Data

The Reinvention of the Building

 

The second perspective critically examines the conceptual and discursive potential of so-called smart buildings. Smart buildings offer us the thought-provoking opportunity to rethink and reposition fundamental architectural concepts such as shelter, comfort, privacy, security, climate control, energy efficiency, or even human behaviour. A smart building is not just a collection of disparate technological devices or computational protocols but a remotely controllable spatial infrastructure system. People and buildings, but also buildings and buildings are interconnected, creating new types of architectural communication networks. Buildings are no longer merely passive carriers of signs. They become active producers - signs produce signs, and thus cities become urban databases.