Flexible Spaces Research Articles

Schools design quality: A user perspective

The Building Schools for the Future was launched by the Government in 2004. The aim of the programme was, under the last Labour Government, to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England by 2020. It represented the biggest capital investment in schools since the 1960s and was designed to explicitly integrate the design quality of schools with the quality of education. It was therefore of the utmost importance for architects, and the construction industry as a whole, to design buildings that were fit for their purpose as 21st century learning environments. Doubts were raised particularly by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), in 2006, about whether the quality of these new schools met the educational aspirations of then Government. It was speculated that some of these new schools lacked the inspiring, innovative and flexible spaces the Labour Government was aiming for, leaving a concern that many of these new schools would exhibit the same problems as the schools that they have replaced. Hence, it was the aim of this study to understand the successes and failures of the Building Schools for the Future programme since the CABE review, with regard to the quality of design in recently completed secondary schools. This was undertaken principally through a questionnaire survey of schools completed between 2006 and 2009. Analysis of the data indicated that there are improvements on some aspects of design quality. Particularly there are improvements in relation to building envelope, public presence, circulation patterns, acoustic, lighting and ventilation strategies. However, the issues of inadequacy of resilient materials specification and a lack of storage are still unresolved.

Density functionals for surface science: Exchange-correlation model development with Bayesian error estimation

A methodology for semiempirical density functional optimization, using regularization and cross-validation methods from machine learning, is developed. We demonstrate that such methods enable well-behaved exchange-correlation approximations in very flexible model spaces, thus avoiding the overfitting found when standard least-squares methods are applied to high-order polynomial expansions. A general-purpose density functional for surface science and catalysis studies should accurately describe bond breaking and formation in chemistry, solid state physics, and surface chemistry, and should preferably also include van der Waals dispersion interactions. Such a functional necessarily compromises between describing fundamentally different types of interactions, making transferability of the density functional approximation a key issue. We investigate this trade-off between describing the energetics of intramolecular and intermolecular, bulk solid, and surface chemical bonding, and the developed optimization method explicitly handles making the compromise based on the directions in model space favored by different materials properties. The approach is applied to designing the Bayesian error estimation functional with van der Waals correlation (BEEF--vdW), a semilocal approximation with an additional nonlocal correlation term. Furthermore, an ensemble of functionals around BEEF--vdW comes out naturally, offering an estimate of the computational error. An extensive assessment on a range of data sets validates the applicability of BEEF--vdW to studies in chemistry and condensed matter physics. Applications of the approximation and its Bayesian ensemble error estimate to two intricate surface science problems support this.

Heroes or zeros? Portuguese–Canadian youth and the cost of mobilising different sociolinguistic resources

This critical sociolinguistic paper adopts a materialist view of how multiple languages and identities are negotiated in an effort to re-examine multilingualism and why people invest in certain sociolinguistic practices. The focus is on the social and linguistic resources and performances of Portuguese–Canadian youth in student cultural associations or clubs in Toronto. The sociolinguistic work carried out in these Portuguese clubs provides a rich context in which to explore diverse linguistic repertoires and trans-local identities which are the hallmark of a postmodern, globalised world. These student associations are flexible transnational spaces where young people should be free to construct their multiple sociolinguistic identities as they see fit. They should be able to assert their creative agency without the constraints of traditional ethnolinguistic gate-keepers like Portuguese teachers, parents or community leaders who can impose homogenised or ‘legitimate’ ways of speaking and being Portuguese. Yet, this hypothetical freedom and flexibility are not easily achieved and they often come at a cost. At issue are questions surrounding authenticity, legitimacy, dominant linguistic and nationalist ideologies, and access to material and symbolic capital that structure the Portuguese–Canadian community as a market and position some people as ‘heroes’ of the Portuguese cause, and others more like ‘zeros’.

Flexible spaces … what students expect from university facilities

PurposeEducational facilities and their design have considerable impact on how students learn. Recent research indicates that modern university students are spending less time on campus and more time interacting with their peers through technology. This paper aims to examine the responses of a small number of first year university students, at RMIT University, Melbourne, to questions about the type of learning facilities they want on campus.Design/methodology/approachFirst year undergraduate students were interviewed about their engagement with university and in particular their learning styles in the physical environment. Although a small volunteer sample (n=12), they were all first‐time users of the university and its facilities. The average age of the sample was 19.8 years. The case studies were interviewed regularly (n=8) over a 12‐month period and their responses to learning needs and styles and university facilities recorded. The gender mix (m=8, f=4) reflected the enrolment patterns in the university school. The students were given a range of discussion triggers in semi‐structured interviews to promote discussion about their own learning styles and where and when they felt they learnt best at university.FindingsThe responses of these students indicate a number of features about their interpretation of the relationship between university learning and teaching expectations and facilities. These are: learning for these students occurred in both formal and informal settings; there was evidence that the timetabled facility dictated the teaching style used and the opportunities for collaborative learning; active learning occurred more often for these students away from the classroom, often in informal, ad hoc spaces; these students placed an important emphasis on the technology available throughout the university; and the students favoured collaborative, social spaces for learning and technology exchange. The conclusions drawn from their responses indicate that these university students want flexible learning spaces that can adapt to both individual and collaborative work with a strong emphasis on social learning and advanced technology. The responses also indicate a mismatch between existing lecture theatres and tutorial rooms and the third space learning that these students want. The results have implications for the design and construct of future teaching and learning spaces in universities and other learning institutions.Practical implicationsFisher notes the importance of safety, security, natural ventilation, lighting and other physical features as conducive to effective learning. Students in this study also indicated a need for multi‐use spaces for intense work and learning opportunities. These spaces also need to allow for students to interact with the global environment through technology.Originality/valueThe changes in learning and teaching have been significant in the past 25 years and the role of features such as technology, collaborative spaces and third space learning have created pressure on universities and staff to meet the demands of a modern community of scholars. There is now a far greater emphasis on the learning needs of tertiary students and the relationship between learning and facilities. The responses of this small sample of first time university users indicate that this relationship is critical.

Constructing Mobile Places between ‘Leisure’ and ‘Transport’: A Case Study of Two Group Cycle Rides

This article contributes to a growing literature examining the sociological significance of mobile places, exploring mobile place-making through an analysis of the practice of weekend group leisure cycling. These rides represent a mobility practice where the main aim of participants may be ‘leisure’ but most infrastructure used is designated for ‘transport’. Using ethnographic methods, the article provides an analysis of rhythm, positioning and communication on two group rides, one from Hull into the East Yorkshire countryside and one in London. External (including motor traffic flow and route type) and internal (including group composition and experience) factors shape the relationship between the riders and their ride, and hence the mobile places that they co-create. The article argues that cyclists riding in groups create distinctively flexible social spaces. These group cycling practices variously challenge, mimic and adapt to the motorized orientation of much road space.

The implementation and evaluation of a new learning space: a pilot study

A dramatic, pedagogical shift has occurred in recent years in educational environments in higher education, supported largely by the use of ubiquitous technologies. Increasingly, emphasis is being placed on the design of new learning spaces, often referred to as ‘‘Next Generation Learning Spaces’’ (NGLS) and their impact on pedagogy. The traditional idea of ‘‘classroom’’ now incorporates the use of both physical and virtual space. Increasing availability of digital technologies has enabled access by teachers and students to a wider range of communication and information that can now be incorporated into the formal learning process. This change has meant a greater focus on the design and use of flexible learning spaces, more use of blended learning approaches and more personalised, individualised learning opportunities for students. While many such classrooms have been built and used in universities globally, only a few formal studies have been reported on how these spaces are used by both teachers and students. This article focuses on a pilot study of the use by academic staff and students of a next generation learning space - the Pod Room - and makes recommendations for further research into the effectiveness of new learning spaces in universities.Keywords: next generation learning spaces; blended learning; case study(Published: 6 March 2012)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20: 14431 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0.14431

Dear Alma Mater: Women's Epistolary Education in the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, 1873–1897

Anna Ticknor, a Boston Brahmin, founded America's first correspondence school. Hailing from across the nation, all students were women. The letters they exchanged with their instructors between 1873 and 1897 opened up flexible spaces of self-definition, encouragement, and disguise that came to mediate—and enable—a new kind of women's education in Victorian–era America.

Omicron space habitat—research stage II

The design presented in this paper is in response to the revolution in private space activities, the increasing public interest in commercial flights to space and the utilization of structures such as space hotels or private orbital habitats. The baseline for the Omicron design concept is the Russian Salyut derived space station module. Salyut was the first space station to orbit the Earth. Its unique design and technical features were what made the development of space stations Salyut 1–7, MIR and the International Space Station (ISS) Zwezda service module possible. Due to its versatility and the reliable operating launch vehicle Proton, this space module series has the potential to be adapted for space hotel development. This paper proposes a conceptual design of the space habitat called Omicron, with particular focus on interior design for the microgravity environment. The Omicron concepts address the needs of space tourism with a strong emphasis on the safety and comfort of the spaceflight participants. The Omicron habitat supports three inhabitants in nominal conditions (e.g., two passengers and one astronaut). The habitat provides a flexible interior, facilities and spaces dynamically transforming in order to accommodate various types of activities, which will be performed in an organically formed interior supporting spatial orientation and movement in microgravity. The future development potential of Omicron is also considered. The baseline version is composed solely of one rigid module with an inverted cupola for observations. An alternative version offers more space using an inflatable structure. Finally, a combination of multiple Omicron modules enables the creation of a larger orbital habitat. The Omicron's subsystems support a few days visit by trained passengers. The transport to the habitat would be provided e.g., by the Soyuz TMA spacecraft carried by the Soyuz launch vehicle in the early stage of Omicron's development, before a fully reusable spacecraft would be available.

Vores by - mellem vækst og velfærd. Om de (re)kreative planlægningstanker bag Carlsbergbyen

Artiklen har til formål at kaste et kritisk blik på byplanlægningstanker, bl.a. med udgangspunkt i Carlsbergbyen. Disse tanker analyseres i forhold til aktuelle samfundsidealer, og det diskuteres, om de er ulighedsskabende set i et velfærdsperspektiv. The article »Our City – between economic growth and social welfare« deals with physical recreational activity in regard to urban planning. A specific planning site in Copenhagen, »Carlsbergbyen« in Valby is picked out to exemplify contemporary dominating thoughts of planning. In the early planning process, »Carlsbergbyen « was called »Our City« referring to the Carlsberg slogan: »Our Beer«. But seen from a critical perspective it can also refer to »Our City« in contrast to »Their City« – and »Our City« in this matter is the city for The Creative Class. A city that facilitates flexible and multifunctional urban spaces, and that is in particular when it comes to recreational activity. The question asked here is what the social consequences are if contemporary urban planning is dominated by The Creative Class. The question is what mechanisms of social exclusion are at stake? To answer this question the article talks about new paradigms of urban planning, new ways of social distinction and in particular new tendencies of physical recreational activities. The aim of the article is to present a critical perspective that focuses on mechanisms of social exclusion, and hereby call for thoughts of reflection when it comes to the ease with which a term like »Our City« seems to be used in the planning process of »Carlsbergbyen«.

La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City (review)

Reviewed by: La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City Adam Schwartz La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City. The University of Arizona Press, 2010. By Lydia R. Otero. In his analysis across feature films that stray from casting professional actors, film theorist Siegfried Kracauer writes of the “documentary touch.” Citing international classics such as The Bicycle Thief and Los olvidados, he remarks: “In all of them the emphasis is on the world about us; their protagonists are not so much particular individuals as types representative of whole groups of people. These narratives serve to dramatize social conditions in general” (98). In short, our voices, livelihoods, and daily existence are validated through the stories film reveals: “When history is made in the streets, the streets tend to move onto the screen” (98). What happens when the streets—those where this history is made—literally disappear? To where do “real life” protagonists turn, off screen? By whom are their voices heard, and stories re-told? In the case of Lydia Otero’s La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City, those streets—and the cultural and historical value ascribed to them by generations of Mexican American (and most of the area’s Asian and African American) residents—were once found in downtown Tucson, Arizona. The Pueblo Center Redevelopment Project, approved in 1966 by the city’s predominantly white property-owning voting base that did not occupy or patronize the region, “targeted the most densely populated eighty acres in [the state]” (2). Within five years, city officials had successfully demolished adobe homes and bilingual community theatres, relocated churches and the remains of central plazas, paving over any dusty, Latino remains of a corazón tucsonsense with “modern” building materials. In an effort to appeal to local white, monolingual wealth and visitors that identified with such cultural comforts, Downtown Tucson had been repackaged in glass and concrete. A brand new cityscape accommodated new government offices, a conference facility, concert hall, a hotel, outdoor shopping mall and an imposing concrete pavilion known today as the Tucson Convention Center (TCC). By 1971, Governor Jack Williams welcomed over 7,000 to the Ice Capades, the first performance at TCC. With the homes of tucsonenses like Alva Torres and Guadalupe Castillo buried somewhere under his feet, Williams, flanked by red, white and blue décor, assured spectators that TCC “belong to ‘the people’ and that it represented ‘tomorrow’” (125). Although cinematic in scope, this very eerie turn of events may not turn into a Buñuellian-style feature anytime soon. However, this exciting volume from The University of Arizona Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies offers a needed “documentary touch” to broadcast her interviews with Torres, Castillo and the once vibrant La Calle. The latter translates literally to “street” in Spanish, yet pragmatically conveys much more: flexible spaces familiar with tucsonense families for generations that extended immediately outside of private domains within the downtown area and inclusive of the “city’s commercial heart” (28). Only pages into Otero’s book does it become sharply apparent that narratives from La Calle today symbolize an extermination of Tucson’s original bilingual cultural and social core, an event in the not-so-distant past that quickly went forgotten and for many remains unnoticed by the greater region’s monolingual, White inhabitants. And yet this research arrives at a time when the livelihoods and voices of tucsonenses and Arizonans are in danger of cultural extermination in new forms: Mexicano, bilingual and Chican@ agency and vitality risk institutional erasure through renewed Anti-English legislation, Anti-immigrant policing and fervor over ethnic studies curricula. Regardless of one’s personal, political or geographic connection to Tucson, I have for the past year insisted that La Calle be read across audiences. All readers, for one, are likely to catch themselves engrossed in a tale complemented by stunning collection of source materials—including photographs, maps, advertisements and newspaper clippings, often getting lost in their [End Page 223] detail for minutes each. As a scholastic piece, the book’s significance is incredibly wide reaching. La Calle introduces key conceptual frames that can be dissected and re-situated...

Construction of bimetallic oxide materials from molybdate building blocks and copper–ligand tethers with flexible spaces: Structures of the two-dimensional [{Cu2(L4)(H2O)2}Mo8O26(H2O)2] and of the three-dimensional [{Cu2(L4)}2(Mo8O26)(MoO4)2] (L4 = N1, N1, N4, N4-tetrakis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)butane-1,4-diamine)

Abstract The hydrothermal reactions of cupric acetate, MoO3 and the dipodal linker ligand N1, N1, N4, N4-tetrakis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)butane-1,4-diamine (L4) provided a high temperature phase [{Cu2(L4)(H2O)2}Mo8O26(H2O)2]·2H2O ( 1 ·2H2O) and a low temperature phase [{Cu2(L4)}2{Mo8O26}{MoO4}2]·2H2O ( 2 ·2H2O). Compound 1 is two-dimensional, constructed from {Mo8O26(H2O)2}4− clusters linked through {Cu2(L4)(H2O)2}4+ rods. In contrast, compound 2 is three-dimensional with two distinct molybdate building blocks, γ-{Mo8O26}4− clusters and {MoO4}2− tetrahedra, linked through two distinct {Cu2(L4)}4+ subunits, one connecting four {MoO4}2+ tetrahedra and the second a {MoO4}2+ tetrahedron and one octamolybdate cluster.

Acoustic design of wall, ceiling, and plenum for college buildings.

What can you do when an owner wants to design and build flexible learning spaces that can be reconfigured as the needs of the school teaching program changes? Well, we have done a research program on this issue and will share both laboratory and field testing data. Demountable wall systems, raised floors, deep ceiling plenums, stuff you stuff into the plenum, and high CAC ceiling tile. Does it make a difference if the teaching is live voice, recorded voice program, or how about music? Of course, it does. So let us talk sound transmission through the ceiling plenum and what to do about it.

Risky neighbourhoods or structural flaws?

Since the 1980s, demographic and structural developments have transformed the social dynamics in European cities. Particularly in poorer communities, such changes may increase feelings of insecurity that facilitate social tension...

Nanoscale Tensile, Shear, and Failure Properties of Layered Silicates as a Function of Cation Density and Stress

Mechanical properties of layered silicates on the nanometer scale have been associated with large uncertainty. We attempt to clarify the linear elastic properties including tensile moduli, shear moduli, and potential failure mechanisms for the minerals pyrophyllite, montmorillonite, and mica in the order of increasing cation exchange capacity (CEC) under a broad range of stress using electronic structure calculations, semiempirical classical molecular dynamics simulation, and the comparison to available macroscopic experimental data. In-plane tensile moduli (xx and yy) are ∼160 GPa independent of CEC and stress, whereas perpendicular tensile moduli (zz) range from 5 to 60 GPa as a function of CEC at low stress (0.01 to 1 GPa) and approach in-plane values at high stress. In-plane shear moduli (xy) are ∼70 GPa independent of CEC and the shear strength increases from ∼1 to ∼3 GPa with increasing cation density. Shear moduli parallel to the layers (xz and yz) are between 2 and 20 GPa as a function of CEC, with a shear strength of 0.2 to 1 GPa beyond which the layers exhibit lateral shear flow. Tensile zz moduli, shear moduli, and shear strength in the xz and yz direction reach a local minimum at a cation density of 0.3 relative to mica. The simulation suggests sliding of the layers, in-plane kinks, and cation intrusion into the layers as potential failure mechanisms equal to amorphization on the macroscale. The anisotropy and stress-dependence of the mechanical properties is determined by the presence of rigid layers and flexible interlayer spaces of variable cation density. Current classical simulation models tend to overestimate in-plane moduli (xx, yy, xy) in a systematic way relative to electronic structure (DFT) and experimental results.

Passenger terminals in airports with highly seasonal demand

Passenger buildings in regional airports with highly seasonal demand are subject to operational constraints that require different design approaches from those typically applied to busy airports. Passenger traffic is shaped by organised tourist flows that exhibit special behavioural patterns affecting peak design hour and dwell time, and hence dimensioning and cost structure. This paper approaches the typical peak design hour via a new method based on the clustering of hourly passenger volumes. It goes on to propose a design based on flexible buffer spaces placed before and after check-in facilities as an efficient planning alternative for airports.

Fragmenting and isolating neighbourhoods: a way of creating flexible spaces and flexible behaviours?

The paper discusses changes that have occurred in Poznan neighbourhoods over the last decades. All issues discussed in the article are in the context of two kinds of flexibility: flexibility of neighbourhood spaces (city-planning meaning) and flexibility of neighbourhood behaviour (sociological meaning). A flexible neighbourhood space is understood here as one allowing various groups of inhabitants conflict-free and liberal use to pursue their individual lifestyles, but also a possibility of entering collective life. Flexible neighbourhood behaviours are such life strategies which are chosen by an individual without restraints resulting from a strictly developed area, formal commands, or cultural rituals. The aim of the paper is to seek an answer to the question of the extent to which fragmented and isolated neighbourhoods turn into a rigidly defined common territory and the extent to which they are a space allowing flexible behaviour patterns, and what social behaviours can be found in those areas. I examine this issue in two perspectives: city-planning (flexibility of neighbourhood spaces) and sociological (flexibility of neighbourhood behaviour).

Ask! Your Library at the HUB: Penn State Libraries’ Experiences Providing Reference Services at the Campus Student Union Building

The Web 2.0 generation presents many service challenges to libraries. College students of today have work styles that emphasize collaboration, preference for flexible and comfortable spaces, and independent discovery of information. Given that challenge, it is important for libraries to experiment with new and unique models of service. Librarians and Staff at the Penn State University Libraries explored offering library service at the main campus’s student union building during two trials, during the Spring and Fall semesters of 2006.

The Library as Place: History, Community, and Culture (review)

Reviewed by: The Library as Place: History, Community, and Culture Susan E. Searing The Library as Place: History, Community, and Culture, ed. John E. Buschman and Gloria J. Leckie . Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. 260p. $50 (ISBN 1-59158-382-9) The concept of "the library as place" is generating lively interest among both scholars and practitioners. The accruing literature on the subject includes illustrated coffee-table books, such as The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World, with photographs by Guillaume de Laubier and text by Jacques Bosser (New York: Henry N. Abrams, 2003) and Heart of the Community: The Libraries We Love by Karen Christensen and David Levinson (Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2007). A related body of writing is concerned with redesigning the physical library in an era when information is increasingly digital and ubiquitous. Works in this vein include two publications from the Council on Library Resources—Libraries Designed for Learning by Scott Bennett (2003) and Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space by Geoffrey T. Freeman et al. (2005). Rather than focusing on the aesthetic impact of library spaces or their management and transformation, co-editors John E. Buschman and Gloria J. Leckie explore the effects that physical libraries have on individuals, communities, and the culture at large. Within the growing literature on the library as place, this collection is unique in presenting fresh and engaging samples of critical scholarship. The high quality of the book's prose befits its origin as a thematic issue of Library Quarterly that grew too big for the journal's pages. Among the authors are well-established library and information science (LIS) scholars and emerging LIS scholars (such as Paulette Rothbauer and Bonnie Mak), whose papers derive from their dissertations, academics in other disciplines, and working librarians. In their substantial introduction, the editors assert a distinction between library as space and library as place. They draw on theoretical writings by geographers and philosophers to expound the idea of the library as a place located in the democratic public sphere. Readers not schooled in theory, particularly of the postmodern variety, may find the introduction rather heavy going. Nonetheless, it supplies a necessary integrative perspective on the eclectic papers that follow, which are grouped under broad section headings: The Library's Place in the Past; Libraries as Places of Community; Research Libraries as Places of Learning and Scholarship; and Libraries, Places, and Culture. Of the 14 contributions, the three in the section on research libraries potentially offer the most relevant content for academic librarians. Karen Antell and Debra Engel describe the "library as place in the life of the scholar" as they uncovered it in two studies conducted at the University of Oklahoma—a set of interviews with professors who had private carrels in the library and a subsequent survey of faculty and doctoral students. Aside from the mildly surprising finding that younger scholars value the physical library's "conduciveness to scholarship" more than their older peers, these studies reveal little about scholars' attitudes that most academic librarians do not already know or suspect. Lisa M. Given writes about undergraduates' information behaviors at a major Canadian university, basing her conclusions not on data gathered directly from students but on interviews with faculty and librarians. The approach is unconventional, but the findings are not. Given's informants underscore the importance of [End Page 214] flexible library spaces that support social as well as academic needs. Many readers will hear echoes of their own users' voices in the verbatim quotations that enhance both Antell and Engel's and Given's papers. The final paper in this section is an impassioned essay by Thomas Mann, reference librarian at the Library of Congress. Recounting complex queries that could only be answered by browsing printed materials, Mann demonstrates the fallacies of current library managerial trends. Scholarship will be ill-served, he argues, by storing little-used books in off-site warehouses, abandoning full subject cataloging and classification, and unquestioningly adopting a digital paradigm for librarianship. Mann has proclaimed his contrarian ideas in other venues, but they carry even greater weight in the context of thinking about the library as a physical environment that enables intellectual discovery...

Flexible Learning Spaces: The Integration of Pedagogy, Physical Design, and Instructional Technology

To support pedagogical innovation, educators must reexamine physical space. This paper describes a project to redesign an existing classroom into a flexible learning space. The desired outcome was a classroom that would support a variety of pedagogical approaches and learning experiences. The findings, based on data gathered from students and faculty, indicate that the renovated classroom increases student engagement, collaboration, flexibility, and learning. A flexible learning space better enables innovative approaches to teaching and learning when compared to the traditional classroom.

Living in the technopolis: Between reality and imagination

Perceived as one of the possible reflections of the contemporary society, the technopolis (or the 'techno-city') integrates the latest technology, various modernist and anti-modernist elements, as well as numerous 'utopian' features which should facilitate our lives and underline aspirations for the future. Consequently, our world, composed of overlapped digital and physical realms, flexible spaces and transformable webs, is balancing between utopia and anti-utopia, progress and decay, geography and non-geography. The stunning, but also horrifying images of the present create tension and confusion, while their fast-changing scales and modes additionally complicate the latest morphing and charting of the global world and its urban nodes. Obviously, the city, as always, depicts the technological background of the society, demonstrating its potentials, paradoxes and threats. However, the modern cities, whose spaces and buildings often represent the wonders of technology, are facing numerous problems. Placed between material and virtual reality, their landscapes are blended and distorted, but colored by similar imperatives and demands. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to define and analyze the outcomes of the urban/architectural interventions which explicitly or implicitly used modern technologies, generating a stage for the 21st century technopolis. .