Place and space in the networked city: Conceptualizing the integrated metropolis

This paper discusses the evolving form of urban areas with particular respect to the growth of new technology and the means of mass communication. The argument is pursued that the shape of cities is moving towards a polycentric form which functions as a whole unit. Rather than resisting the evolution of such a form, as is suggested by, say, both the urban villages movement and the proponents of the compact city, the authors suggest that a multi-centred metropolis should be made to work more effectively and efficiently. To do this, it is suggested that design and managerial effort is put into the networks of movement and communication which support the general mass of urban form, paying particular attention to the nodal connections between the networks. Nevertheless, whilst such a strategy might satisfy the functional requirements of the metropolis of the twenty-first century in terms of easing congestion and decreasing energy consumption, it does not address the imaginative and associative features of 'place' which form an important part of the postmodern experience of the city. In the final part of the paper it is argued that urban designers should take cognisance of the extended knowledge of place which the information revolution has provided and should seek to integrate cities and towns more thoroughly by creating identity and reinforcing the locational attributes for nodes, sub-centres and key features of the networks. Such a strategy has implications for a reorienting of urban design away from its traditional focus on sites and centres towards an inclusion of networks, transport interchanges and suburban sub-centres.