Hybrid processes: technological integration as an actant of the design project

Abstract

This paper on the Urban Technology framework focuses on the many ways in which technological development interacts and engages with evolving urban systems. The study, carried out during a PhD visiting research agreement at the GSAPP of Columbia University (2018-19), aims to highlight the need for contamination between various fields of knowledge during all phases of the design process through the methodological approach of the Actor-Network Theory. The experiment conducted in the Lower East Side of Manhattan reveals, through participatory tools, the prefiguration of hybrid spaces resulting from the network of links established by technology as a hybrid and integrated actor within relationships between subjects of the design process.

Keywords

• Urban technology
• Actor-Network Theory
• Technological integration
• Hybrid processes
• Nature-culture dichotomy