Architecture, Speed, and Relativity: On the Ethics of Eternity, Infinity, and Virtuality (2000)
article⁄Architecture, Speed, and Relativity: On the Ethics of Eternity, Infinity, and Virtuality (2000)
abstract⁄The main purpose of this essay is to provide a critical framework and raise a debate to understand the spatial and temporal impact of information technologies on architecture. As the world moves from geopolitics to chronopolitics, architecture with its traditional boundaries still vociferously guarded is becoming further marginalized into sectors of mere infrastructure. The essay begins by clarifying the notions of space, time, and speed through a phenomenological interpretation of Minkowskian Einsteinian notion of relativistic spacetime. Drawing from the cultural critiques offered by Paul Virilio, Marshall McLuhan, and Jacques Ellul, the essay argues that we are at the end of the reign of spacebased institutions and transitioning rapidly into a timebased culture.
