{"id":2079,"date":"2023-12-08T16:17:12","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T15:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/2023\/12\/08\/the-limits-of-the-city-as-a-platform\/"},"modified":"2023-12-08T16:17:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T15:17:12","slug":"the-limits-of-the-city-as-a-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/2023\/12\/08\/the-limits-of-the-city-as-a-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"The limits of \u2018the city as a platform\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Conversation has an <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/wework-approached-physical-space-as-if-it-were-virtual-which-led-to-the-companys-downfall-217909\">interesting piece<\/a> called \u201cWeWork approached physical space as if it were virtual, which led to the company\u2019s downfall\u201d. In the article, the author argues that dreams of cities as cybernetic systems &#8211; while old &#8211; have their limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"828\" height=\"1696\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4482-1.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-2078\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4482-1.jpg 828w, https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4482-1-342x700.jpg 342w, https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4482-1-73x150.jpg 73w, https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4482-1-768x1573.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4482-1-750x1536.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The author suggests that this cybernetic logic of essentially seeing cities and computers as the same in terms of \u2018informational flows\u2019,  is what led to the downfall of WeWork: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEarlier in the twentieth century, offices were thought of as, essentially, industrial buildings. [\u2026] But during World War II, executives witnessed the military use giant mainframes for logistics and deciphering codes. Afterwards, many started thinking of an office filled with workers as a kind of computing infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But of course offices are more than that. They are social work spaces, and give people a sense of place and belonging. WeWorkfailed to deliver exactly this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, the author concludes with a reference to Shannon Mattern\u2019s book, <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/paperback\/9780691208053\/a-city-is-not-a-computer\">the city is not a computer\u2026<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Link to article on <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/wework-approached-physical-space-as-if-it-were-virtual-which-led-to-the-companys-downfall-217909\">The Conversation &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"syndication-links\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conversation has an interesting piece called \u201cWeWork approached physical space as if it were virtual, which led to the company\u2019s downfall\u201d. In the article, [&hellip;] <span class=\"read-more-link\"><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/2023\/12\/08\/the-limits-of-the-city-as-a-platform\/\">Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mf2_syndication":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[354,255,355],"class_list":["post-2079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cybernetic-city","tag-platform-urbanism","tag-wework"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/img_4482-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peQgW-xx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}