Technology and Urban Development

Technology and the City

Most of us are somehow depended on information technology. When we reach our home we catch ourselves checking our email box and then taking off our coat or leaving home without our cell phone and run back to get it. Information technology has an impact on our lifestyle, on the way we live, work and get entertained. How is our lifestyle connected with the city? What will be the impact of information technology in the city? Is it going to be a physical impact? What will be the future image of the city? In this study we will examine if and how information technology will affect the city's image, as we know it so far. To evaluate and understand the impact of information technology on the future city, we first look backwards in the urban history and see how new technologies of the past, such as the car invention, affected the image of the city.

"The first British motor car was built in 1895, but it was several decades before it began to affect the shape of cities."[1] In USA and Europe, automobile production on a commercial production scale began at the beginning of the 20th century and was affordable only for few rich people. "In fact, automobiles were thought more as a toy for rich than as a realistic mode of transport."[2] But soon it became popular to general population because of the benefit to travel anytime and anywhere, as long as there was a road leading there. The demand of consumers promoted mass production and car became cheaper and therefore, more accessible to middle class. By 1920 the image of the city started changing.[3] Suburbanization and urban sprawl was happening, city was growing in size. People could live in less dense areas where housing was more affordable and work in the city by commuting. Industry and many businesses moved outwards the city to cheaper places and roads were constructed to connect cities. New jobs, due to the impact of the automobile, were created such as fast food, city/highway construction, state patrol/police, convenience stores, gas stations, auto repair shops, auto shops, etc.[4] Changes were also happening in the existing urban centres and street patterns to accommodate the increasing car ownership. A visible effect on the city fabric was the design of houses and neighborhoods. Houses were not opened directly to the street as before, because there was a need for a garage. The street-for-cars became a barrier between houses, limiting the community communication and the sense of neighbourhood.[5]

From the previous example we understand that the car invention, a new technology of the past, had an eventually impact on the image of the city. Economy, lifestyle, social life and spatial characteristics of the city were affected through succeeded processes. We will now study how today's new technology, information technology, such as the cell phone, the laptop and the internet, affect the economy and the lifestyle and how these social changes will promote spatial urban changes in the future.

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[1] Colin Chant,"European cities since 1870: The second industrial revolution and the rise of modern planning", in David Goodman, Colin Chant (eds), European cities and technology: Industrial to post industustrial city, p.139, (London:Roudledge, 1999).

[2] Karen Kopecky, Richard Suen, Suburbanization and the Automobile,(University of Rochester, research report No.6, January 2004, Version July 2006), p.3, http://www.econ.rochester.edu/Faculty/GreenwoodPapers/SuburbandAuto.pdf, (accessed 31 May 2008).

[3] In 1924 Le Corbusier published his book "The city of tomorrow", planning and designing the future city. A high density city, served by cars, divided in zones according to functions. Le Corbusier, The city of tomorrow, (London: Humphries and co. ltd, 1947)

[4] "The impact of the automobile on the 20th century", http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/systems/agentsheets/New-Vista/automobile/history.html, (accessed 31 May 2008).

[5] Colin Chant,"European cities since 1870: The second industrial revolution and the rise of modern planning", in David Goodman, ColinChant (eds), European cities and technology: Industrial to post industustrial city,pp.121-174, (London:Roudledge, 1999).