Living in the technopolis: Between reality and imagination

Abstract

Perceived as one of the possible reflections of the contemporary society, the technopolis (or the 'techno-city') integrates the latest technology, various modernist and anti-modernist elements, as well as numerous 'utopian' features which should facilitate our lives and underline aspirations for the future. Consequently, our world, composed of overlapped digital and physical realms, flexible spaces and transformable webs, is balancing between utopia and anti-utopia, progress and decay, geography and non-geography. The stunning, but also horrifying images of the present create tension and confusion, while their fast-changing scales and modes additionally complicate the latest morphing and charting of the global world and its urban nodes. Obviously, the city, as always, depicts the technological background of the society, demonstrating its potentials, paradoxes and threats. However, the modern cities, whose spaces and buildings often represent the wonders of technology, are facing numerous problems. Placed between material and virtual reality, their landscapes are blended and distorted, but colored by similar imperatives and demands. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to define and analyze the outcomes of the urban/architectural interventions which explicitly or implicitly used modern technologies, generating a stage for the 21st century technopolis.