D_005 urban-I™

Felix Althanns 

Independent Diploma student  with Professor Dr. Phil. Gerd de Bruyn 

University of Stuttgart, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning 

Stuttgart, Germany

The concept of urban.i  is to provide communication interfaces for an urban environment. (urban-interfaces) The locations of interest are the underpasses connecting the city surface with a public transportation system. The newly developed interfaces of urban.i  represent a new generation of street furniture, they transform seedy underground spaces into interconnected stages for city users. With the implementation of this interfaces, urban .i  shows how to transform the concept of institutional surveillance into an architectural concept, that restores the classic idea of social supervision. (urban eye -> urban I) The notion of urbanity, to see and be seen, to encounter others or to acquire public space is broadened by linking these places of mass transit. As part of the public transportation system they are already connected in real space, by adding a second layer of connectivity they become connected in communicational space. This space then becomes accessible in the information space of the net.

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