Carta S. Big Data, Code and the Discrete City: Shaping Public Realms

New York, Routledge, 2020. 226p. ISBN: 978-1-351-00740-5.Big Data, Code and the Discrete City explore how digital technologies are gradually changing how the public space is designed by architects, managed by policymakers, and experienced by individuals. Smart city technologies are superseding the traditional human experience that has characterized the making of public space until today. This book examines how computers see the public space and the effect of algorithms, artificial intelligence, and automated processes on the human experience in public spaces.Divided into three parts, the first part of this book examines the notion of discreteness in its origins and applications to computer sciences. The second section presents a dual perspective: it explores how public spaces are constructed by computer-driven logic and then translated into control mechanisms, design strategies, and software-aided design. This perspective also describes how individuals perceive this new public space, through its digital logic, and discrete mechanisms (from Wi-Fi coverage to self-tracking). Finally, in the third part, this book scrutinizes the discrete logic with which computers operate, and how this is permeating into aspects of city life.