DATAPOLIS looks into the materiality of data, its inherent ethical and political contradictions as well as cultural and environmental footprints, by following two main trajectories: the first one attempts to define what ‘the cloud’ is and how it operates. From the systems and infrastructures behind the Internet to the apparatus, gizmos and buildings that can transcend scales and temporal dimensions. The second one explores how data penetrates our existence, not only by affecting the ways we live and work, or design and make cities, but by offering distinct ways of life and organization that otherwise would not have been possible.

Through various visual and textual materials, this book speculates on the ways in which architecture can engage with data and digital technology beyond its mere instrumental use in making (smart) cities.

DATAPOLIS is edited by Paul Cournet and Negar Sanaan Bensi. With contributions by Kees Kaan, Kate Crawford, Shannon Mattern, Ruha Benjamin, Marina Otero Verzier and Joost Grootens a.o.

The most complete version of this work was published in 2023 by nai010.@en

Data is een cruciaal onderdeel van ons leven geworden - wanneer was de laatste keer dat u 24 uur offline was? Ondanks de alomtegenwoordigheid begrijpen we de mechanismen van deze infosfeer nauwelijks, een complexe wereld die met materiële en immateriële middelen kan worden aanschouwd.

DATAPOLIS onderzoekt de materialiteit van data, de inherente ethische en politieke tegenstrijdigheden en de culturele en ecologische voetafdrukken ervan. Twee hoofdtrajecten worden gevolgd. Het eerste tracht te definiëren wat de ‘cloud' is en hoe deze functioneert: van de systemen en infrastructuren achter het internet tot de apparaten, gadgets en gebouwen die schalen en tijdsdimensies kunnen overstijgen. De tweede verkent hoe data ons bestaan binnendringt: niet alleen door te beïnvloeden hoe we leven, werken en steden ontwerpen, maar ook door verschillende manieren van leven en organiseren te bieden die anders niet mogelijk zouden zijn geweest.

Door middel van verschillende visuele en tekstuele materialen speculeert dit boek over de manieren waarop architectuur zich kan bezighouden met data en digitale technologie, naast het louter instrumentele gebruik ervan bij het maken van (slimme) steden.

DATAPOLIS is samengesteld door TU Delft-onderzoekers Paul Cournet en Negar Sanaan Bensi. Met bijdragen van Kees Kaan, Kate Crawford, Shannon Mattern, Ruha Benjamin, Marina Otero Verzier en Joost Grootens o.a.@en

The ambition of Footprint 23 is to provide a critical survey of the architecture of logistics, unfolding the multivalences of its apparatus, dissecting its buildings and spaces, its technologies and labour relations, its historical evolutions as well as its future projections. Gathering academic papers and visual essays from researchers and emerging scholars in the field, the issue follows three main directions of inquiry.

The first trajectory attempts to define what logistics is and how it operates, focusing on the inherent ambivalence of its apparatus, able to cope with different scales and various temporal dimensions – from barcodes and gadgets to global routes and territorial infrastructures – constituting both a physical and abstract framework supporting, measuring and quantifying movements and actions, thoughts and desires. The second trajectory investigates the way logistics penetrates our existences, not simply by affecting how we live and work but the way in which it provides the very possibility of life as such, or, in other words, how logistics is inherently political. The third trajectory tackles the past, present and future of logistics, considered as the most crucial apparatus determining the human impact on the earth, controlling the distribution and organisation of organisms and ecosystems, triggering new and more violent forms of colonisation and exploitation.

This issue of Footprint does not seek definitive statements or hypothetic solutions for the monstrous nature of logistics. On the opposite, it aims at unfolding its inner contradictions to propose new possibilities of exploration for an architecture and its project.@en