New genres are necessary to frame the evolving complexities of the modern city.
MESH is a term often applied to the socially-networked systems spawned by new information technologies. Where those technologies overlap with the design and ongoing use of cities the result can be described as a MESH City. SMART cities are conceived of–still–in a top down fashion where existing city systems and infrastructure are made more efficient. That's not a bad thing. It is, however, only one part of the 21st Century megapolis equation.
When ICT, urban design, sustainability, and social networking come together to provide new design processes equivalent to the impact 3d modelling and CADCAM have had on building design, that is we will see a revolution in the way cities are built and inhabited…
The MESH City must be understood as part of a complex system of interdependent information-sharing systems. These begin with travel between global urban regions and cascade down through cities and their transits systems, for example, to neighbourhoods, through to cultural touchstones and the personal empowerment given my smart phone technologies.
The network effect created by these overlapping systems is essential to a truly MESH City.
