I'm looking for readings on how the architectural experience has been influenced by the age of information (cyberspace, cell phones, all that).

I'm not necessarily interested in how digital advances have changed design itself-- I'm more interested in the experience and role of architecture and how it has shifted as a result of new technologies.

Any essays, books-- readings in general-- that you can suggest would be most helpful.

Thanks kindly,
s.

william mitchell?

back issues of wired magazine?

I second Bill Mitchell, granted your topic is somewhat narrowed you may have to dig up through some mid 90s copies of Harvard Design Magazine or the digital architect series

I'd say read up on Baudrillard and McLuhan - those would be good starting points for a better understanding of the basics.

Great suggestions, thanks all.
I'm also finding Virilio very useful...

there was something in a recent wired about Augmented Reality, basically the possibility of using your cell phone to read 'tags' on the things around you in order to learn more about them.

also, if there is a solar decathlon team in your school, maybe talk to some of them or get them to connect you with other participants who got involved with their entries' technology. several of the houses were run from apps in iphones, etc.

If you want information about things like cyberspace and cell phones (technologies that have already been realized and were theorized about in the past) look at The Ecstasy of Communication (1987) or stuff like that from the 80's and 90's.

Looking toward newer, more relevant research, you should check out the free publications available on the MIT Media Lab’s Web site. Steven’s tag reading thing is on there. The work these groups are doing beats the shit out of cyberspace and cellphones. Try to groups:

RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENTS:
How sensor networks augment and mediate human experience, interaction, and perception.

SMART CITIES:
How buildings and cities can become more intelligently responsive to the needs and desires of their inhabitants.

COMPUTING CULTURE:
How artists and engineers can refigure technology for the full range of human experience.

INFORMATION ECOLOGY:
How to create seamless and pervasive connections between our physical environments and information

OBJECT-BASED MEDIA:
How to create communication systems that gain an understanding of the content they carry and use it to make richer connections among users.

I think what you are interested in is the sociology of the built environment and how information technology has changed it. If so, let me encourage you to consider some actual social science, and be suspicious of the claims of computer/media research agendas.

I'd recommend as a place to start some of the early work in Science Studies, like Bell's Post-industrial society and Suchman's Plans and Situated Actions. Gary Downey's book on CAD/CAM, while dated, is a serious ethnography within spitting distance of your topic.

If any of the above strike a chord, I'd be happy to share a longer bibliography in the near future.

Martin Heidegger's "The Question Concerning Technology"

and check out Storming the Reality Studio, an anthology of cyberpunk lit/theory edited by Larry McCaffery

I recommend if you are looking for innovation and a qualitative and quantum shift in urbanism and architceture far beyond mitchell ... the 4D City theory of Serrano with their 3D transportation concept (www.satproject.com.ar) is what you are looking for..

they are thinking beyond....

the concept of 4D City I belive is the near future, the paradigm shift for architecture and urbanism.

Check out the newest Archinect feature here which interviews David Galbraith (of RSS and Yelp fame) who moved from architecture to "maker of 'Internet Stuff'" in the latest installment in our Working out of the Box series.