PLATFORM URBANISM
One of the most striking phenomena in the architecture of the 21st century is the spread of a new type of platform urbanism. In the spirit of disruptive innovation, digital platforms like Airbnb, Uber, WeWork and Amazon are permeating ever more areas of our lives – housing, work, recreation, health, education, transport – and in the process dissolving old orders. Architecture is being impacted by this development in a dual sense. On the one hand, the relocation of human interaction to digital platforms is depriving the built environment of its status as a dominant force in the structuring of societies, and, on the other, the communicative, logistical and operative potentials of platforms are concomitant with new aesthetics that are also radically changing the design of architecture.
Our conception and design of the Austrian contribution to the Biennale Architettura 2021 responds to this fundamental intervention in the role of architecture by asking what should be the central focus of contemporary architectural discourse: contemporary buildings, architectural portfolios, the programmes of architectural schools or spatial installations with which current themes and future visions are artistically interpreted? In our project titled PLATFORM AUSTRIA we consider the complex starting point of digital transformation from the perspective of production
(or users’ productive consumption) and ask who is involved in these processes and in what way. Who are the winners and losers in platform urbanism and what constellation of actors, infrastructures and control systems are we dealing with here?
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accelerated relocation of communication onto platforms (!) that it has brought with it, we had to rethink our approach in the middle of our work process. On the other hand, the postponement of the Biennale for a whole year gave us time to observe how platforms are becoming ever more important in the structuring of everyday life. This period clearly showed us how established cultures of dialogue – personal encounters, conversations, meetings and other markers of the quality of human relationships – were being suppressed by an increasingly rigid and authoritarian form of platform-based interaction. The most important resource of platforms is participation, but the scope for personal expression offered by this new type of participation is extremely limited – something that many people have had to experience since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether in the world of work, education or recreation. This state of affairs made it all the more important for us to establish an open forum for a dialogue on platform urbanism in the Austrian pavilion.
With our contribution to the Biennale Architettura 2021 PLATFORM AUSTRIA we are reclaiming, together with dozens of experts from around the world, the right to co-determine the framework conditions of the urban development driven by platforms, and we are hoping that many other people will join this initiative.
Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer