Platform Architectures

Despite much talk on the future of work, these emerging platform architectures—the spatial conditions and typologies resulting of converting labor-intensive industries and services to capital-intensive ones by adopting digital technologies and related platforms—are far from the architectural imagination. Anticipating what those platform architectures might mean for the future of the built environment and society at large is a task that is yet to be done. As the late John Urry reminded us, one method for anticipating, planning, and designing for potential, and uncertain, futures shaped by technology is to learn from the past and discern how technological innovations came into being, developed, and diffused to the point of becoming part of everyday practices. Looking backwards helps in understanding the processes that brought in certain outcomes and paths to technological and spatial lock-ins; examining the road to innovation, the actors at play, their interests, values, and motivations, and their consequences in the production of space are useful matter for constructing scenarios to guide future actions