PUBLIC SPACE ISSUE

The fourth issue of Abstrakt probes into public space and its shifting boundaries, specifically in the context of extensive amounts of privatization within the urban public domain and alternative modes of interaction occurring on digital platforms. As various forms of exchange — from economic to cultural and social — have moved online, our relationship with the material city is being reevaluated. Architecture can assume the role of a mediator between private influence and city dwellers, while also seeking to shape the connection between the digital and physical layers of the public realm, in order to multiply possibilities for social exchange in physically shared spaces. To explore this topic, we have invited Greg Lynn, Clare Lyster, Baerbel Mueller and Siqi Zhu, bringing intense conversations on a scope of pertinent issues. Topics range from the consideration of context and idiosyncrasies, community engagement in the design process and ownership on the one hand, to matters related to the technologization of space on the other — such as the omnipresence of digital interfaces, or the impact of logistical systems and new forms of mobility on public space. These contributions are accompanied by a series of architectural designs gathered from students and alumni at the Institute of Architecture at the Angewandte that rethink the fluid border between public and private.

Greg Lynn is an architect, writer, educator and pioneer in the field of digital design methodologies in architecture. He is the founder and owner of Greg Lynn FORM and the co-founder of the robotics company Piaggio Fast Forward. He is currently teaching as a professor of architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture in Los Angeles. In 2009, he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Time Magazine has named him one of the 100 most innovative people of the twenty-first century.