06. The Internet Bomb

The abrupt and explosive growth of technology over the past few years has created a visible shift in every facet of our society. The advent of the Internet and technological developments such as social media platforms have changed how people make friends, how people experience a sense of community, how people make connections to society as a whole. In addition to changing our experience of these somewhat intangible factors, these developments also have the ability to change our perception of the built environment.

This new online space now acts as an augmented reality that resembles the one we physically inhabit, but is different in more ways than one. There are spaces that only exist in virtual reality, physical spaces that serve as backdrops to photos and posts, that are perceived in a totally different way online than they actually are in real life. There are also spaces and objects that can be “experienced” online, without ever setting foot in the physical building or seeing the work of art in person. This enhanced accessibility affects the way we experience, interpret, and absorb what we are seeing. It is easier to “see” more, yet the time spent on each image is shifted, the speed of the scroll is competing with the traditional quiet contemplation of the museum or gallery. In addition to this hyper-saturation of content affecting what we see, it has affected what we contribute to the conversation. Monuments and artwork serve as backdrops for photos, bland buildings offer colorful facades for social media posts. In an attempt to curate on online image, people visit installations and places for the sole purpose of generating social media content. Masterpieces may be completely ignored, save for serving as wallpaper for a photo. Pop-up installations attract masses of visitors for photo opportunities, just outside the image frame the backdrop ends abruptly. These spaces exist one way in the photo and another way in real life. Technology has offered tools to help people make connections to the world around them, share their creations with a wider audience, allow people to see images of things they would otherwise never see. It has created a tangible shift in the way of the world, and affects the way we live in the current built environment. Social media, the Internet, and modern technology as a whole will continue to grow and change, shifting society and continuing to foster a culture of both fetishism and fear for these new tools. Architecture needs to shift as well, to adapt to this new, virtual space that we are all expected to experience and occupy.

The Internet has created an alternate universe with a reality parallel to our own that users now occupy as much as, if not more than, the physical built environment. This augmented world that lives online now offers a new context for design, and architects must invade and occupy the Internet space as much as they do the physical environment.

Basically, we (and when I say we, I do mean we, but my generation in particular) spend our lives weaving two realities: the physical and the online. While one of these is very tangible and one is based entirely they hold equal weight in our lives.

weaving in and out of on perception, project aims to mimic that lived condition: moving between the “real” world and the online, the tangible NYC and the created wonderland of the project.

Completed in 1904 and used until 1940, the City Hall subway station is a well-preserved relic of another era. One enters and is immediately transported to another time and place, making it a perfect site. The Internet is infinitely transportive, so what better choice to use a transportation center from another age.

Here, we have the previous images re-imagined, edited to create the entrance to a vibrant Internet playground.