'C is for Convergence; Architecture and the Bitsphere'
- hello25051
- May 26, 2024
- 6 min read
“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,”
Sir Winston Churchill, House of Lords, October 28, 1943
As we approach the end of the academic school year, we look forward to the summer holidays and the opportunity to visit the end-of-year art and architecture shows. This year's shows will be our first visit to see student work post-covid.
We try to make it a priority to visit art across the United Kingdom with our children, and cultivate an appreciation for the built environment. These educational travels aim to be more than sightseeing; but to serve as a catalyst for curiosity, broadening perspectives, and nurturing the development of essential life skills. Details and proportions of Victorian-era buildings, observing carvings and renovated interiors of historic libraries in contrast with contemporary housing developments.
Unfortunately, all too frequently, the high-street library come with signs of permanent closure, Victorian era housing vacant, their "For Sale" signs a testament to the ever-shifting tides of urban development, and social housing has become densely populated yet unsurprisingly more technocentric, with more mobile phones in younger hands than the generation before.
This contrast of the old and new can observe how less inspiring built environments can
inadvertently encourage and accelerate the rise of the "bitsphere" – a global village where children and adults alike are encouraged to start anew in a world of artificial intelligence, cyber architecture, cell phones, and avatars.
After a recent rediscovery of several decades of family books, I unearthed some favourites from old school reading lists. Authors William J. Mitchell’s two recommended books; 'Me++' and 'City of Bits; Space, Place and the Infobahn' *1, the seventh edition print from 2000.
Our children's personal cyberspace is already influx with school recommendations and physical books; ‘the device’ already an extension of the hand and the initial source for reference and links. Personal devices have already become the primary interface between ‘flesh monitoring nervous system and bitsphere‘*1 , with online medical records logged by our watches, identification noted from waving our palms and digital cash becoming accessible from body scans.
Mitchell notes in City of Bits ‘Networks at these different levels will all have to link up somehow; the body net will be connected to the building net, the building net to the community net, and the community net to the global net. From gesture sensors worn on our bodies to the worldwide infrastructure of the communications satellites and long distance fibre, the elements of the bitsphere will finally come together to form one densely woven system within which the knee bone (or did he mean ankle) is connected to the I-Bahn.’*1
This year we are expecting many student works to reference technology and the digital bitsphere architectural concepts including Mitchell's.
The bitsphere is a concept that emerged in the 1990's to describe the rapidly expanding digital world facilitated by the growth of the internet, computer networks, and digital technologies. The bitsphere represents the virtual space where digital data, information, and communication flows, transcending physical boundaries and enabling new forms of interaction, commerce, and social dynamics.*1
Mitchell notes ‘Within bitsphere communities, there will be subnetworks at a smaller scale still - that of architecture. Increasingly, computers will meld seamlessly into the fabric of buildings and buildings themselves will become computers - the outcome of a long evolution. Pre industrial buildings not much more than supporting skeletons and enclosing skins. With the Industrial Revolutions, they were routinely equipped with water supply and sewage systems, heating and air conditioning systems, electrical systems, safety systems, and more. Now they are getting electronic nervous systems - network connections, cabling in the woodwork, and information appliances.’*1
Specialized sensors and input devices harvest bits at ‘arbitrary locations’, as processors are
embedded wherever they happened to be needed,'
'..and as all the various displays and appliances are integrated into building-wide, digitally
controlled systems, it will become meaningless to ask where the smart electronics end and the dumb construction begins,'
‘..computers will burst out of their boxes, walls will be wired, and the architectural works of the bitsphere will be less structures with chips than robots with foundations.' *1
The bitspace is a description of the metaverse; ‘a virtual space constructed by
interconnected computer systems and digital networks. It facilitates the flow and exchange of digital information and data across vast distances. It enables new forms of communication, collaboration, and virtual communities. It is not bound by physical constraints or geographical limitations. It is constantly evolving and expanding with the development of new technologies and digital innovations’. *1
Designing Architecture and Content for the Bitsphere:
The Bitsphere has been made possible by the rapid pace of progress in the development of the core enabling technologies, notably Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, the Internet Things (IoT), Edge Computing, Blockchain, Digital Twins (DT), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and high-speed 5G networks.* 2
Source *4 : A conceptual framework for the digital and computing processes underlying the Metaverse as a virtual form of data-driven smart urbanism
As members of Generation X, we find ourselves navigating the metaverse as digital migrants,
transitioning from traditional design principles rooted in two-dimensional and three-dimensional output. We have since ushered in an evolution in design output with a multitude of media formats. Reading online forums like 'Stack Overflow,'*3 where design system developers share their insights, we gain valuable education for designers and architects venturing into the metaverse.
Many successful metaverse companies have drawn inspiration from the realms of media
production and broadcasting, recognizing principles that underpin both industries. Core basic animation principles used in media are transferable in metaverse architecture designs, notably with metaverse animation, audio and avatars.
My own architectural projects and reference have included demountable structures such as stage builds. The metaverse forums are effective in understanding design systems in context of architectural structural requirements, particular for metaverse film stage and animation. Using the current design principle listed on forums, a staged fight for example, would mimic real world natural movement and audio. This can potentially be framed in the metaverse as avatars. As a technical director for a metaverse movie, a film set could possibly require a group of actors ( any person, any age) throwing each other around in a real 3D space ( architecture could just consist of blacked walls and nets to form the stage set). Actors (any age) recorded for real time movements/ images can then be translated into virtual players/ actors/ avatars in the metaverse. One could record input in 3d, and stream, altering audio, ambient sounds, faces and bodies as needed for avatars.
With the nature of AI, this implies streaming live data can officially place end data anywhere ,
making legislation for global filming and recording locations for the metaverse potentially
exponential. Metaverse filming may be possible globally, on a shoestring budget without participating in contract signing or possibly traditional regulations, legislation or consent. Such network infrastructure could potentially become independent of real world film contracts, requirements of actors and overheads of staff.
If our existing spaces were designed with the bitsphere in mind, their architecture could be recorded and translated into virtual environments. This could mean university campuses, shopping malls, playgrounds, sports centres, and stadiums could be digitally mapped, creating metaverse counterparts that mirror their real-world layouts. This architecture would enable virtual avatars to navigate and inhabit these metaverse spaces concurrently with our physical world.
As the bitsphere continues to evolve, our built environments transform into supporting structures and skins for electronic nervous systems – a intricate network of connections and cabling woven into the very fabric of our architectural spaces, and information appliances seamlessly integrated into our surroundings. With this understanding, we visit architectural exhibitions noting the depth and complexity that the built environment has attained. Upcoming architectural exhibitions offer an opportunity to engage our children in understanding this relationship between the physical and the digital realms. We aim to foster a deeper appreciation for the built environment that surrounds them, inspiring them to reference history, culture, and innovation. As our architectural spaces and the bitsphere converge, we give rise to a truly global village, and embark on a continuous educational journey, exploring the many uses and applications of emerging digital technologies.
Appendix
City of Bits; Space, Place and the Infobahn'
2. The Metaverse as a virtual form of data-driven smart urbanism: platformization and its underlying processes, institutional dimensions, and disruptive impacts
3. 'Stack overflow' forum link:
4. A conceptual framework for the digital and computing processes underlying the Metaverse as a virtual form of data-driven smart urbanism:
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