The Hyper Reality Principles in the Age of the Post-Humanism: the Paradigm Post-Human Body -Hyper City

Landi, Davide

Abstract

Since ancient times, the use of the analogy human body - buildings was central in architectural and urban design. On the one side, the Greeks used a “psychological understanding” of the body; on the other side, the Romans used their “geometrical understanding” of the body for the production of architectural and urban forms. The architects of the Middle Ages conceived military architectures in the shape of human bodies. While the Renaissance embedded a revival of the classic mathematical relationship between human body – built environment – Divine order. The “enlightened designers” of the 18th and 19th century, instead, attempted to create a “healthy city” on the model of a “healthy body.” However, the 20th-century Fordism economic model shift required spatial segregation to improve efficiency and specialisation in production. People and commercial goods could freely flow through the city along new urban infrastructures such as trains. People no longer inhabited the city, and these infrastructures became a metaphor of modern “arteries and veins,” which were not able to tie a fractioned urban body. Inevitably, the analogy human body-built environment was negatively affected.

The 21st-century technological revolution transformed the city and its inhabitants into something different. These are “quantified cities” which are permeated of digital data and dynamically experienced by “quantified human beings.” Consequently, a renewed paradigm human body - built environment is established, which is built around an alternate comprehension of the analogy human body - buildings. Can this new analogy reconcile a divided urban body? This paper will critically investigate the paradigm “Hyper City” – “Post-Human” body. In particular, the analysis will untangle the elements that characterise the analogy which is embedded in the paradigm (i.e. psychological, mathematical and metaphorical comprehension of the analogy). In this, the more traditional notion of urbanisation is questioned through an urban society that is technologically mediated.

Citation

Landi, D. (2018, November). The Hyper Reality Principles in the Age of the Post-Humanism: the Paradigm Post-Human Body -Hyper City. Paper presented at 15th Architectural Humanities Research Association International Conference, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 15th Architectural Humanities Research Association International Conference
• Conference Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• Start Date: Nov 15, 2018
• End Date: Nov 17, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2020
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5628211