SEATTLE CITY OF BITS SYMPOSIUM

Come discuss what the city of tomorrow will look like with William Mitchell, MIT’s Dean of Architecture, and other internationally-renowned professionals from the fields of architecture, urban planning, and virtual technology.

In cooperation with the AIA Seattle Chapter and the University of Washington, the MIT Club of Puget Sound is hosting Dean Mitchell for the Seattle City of Bits Symposium, on Saturday, October 3, 1998. You can expect an exciting forum challenging today’s paradigms, proposing methodologies for advancement, and debating ideas about the future.

The following are the key speakers:

William J. Mitchell City of Bits

Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences and Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, William Mitchell will discuss the growing impact of new digital telecommunications infrastructure on architecture and urban form - the topic of his recent book "City of Bits," http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/City_of_Bits/   and of his forthcoming book "E-Topia: Our Town Tomorrow" (MIT Press). In particular, he will focus on specific architectural and urban design problems and opportunities that this emerging technological context produces,the options that may be available for approaching these design tasks, and the associated gains and losses in the quality of our everyday lives. See MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/City_of_Bits/.

Immo Teperi Change of City Concept
Architect and Co-Founder Arcus Software, Director of 3-D modeling for Helsinki Arena 2000

In the past, there was one primary concept of a city: a physical city. Today, three types of cities exist: physical, virtual physical & virtual imaginary cities. Teperi believes physical cities will not change but the city concept will change, as he presents the Helsinki Arena 2000 Project www.helsinkiarena2000.fi/, a $100M undertaking which will make the entire city accessible in a multi-media interactive network.

Linda Stone Virtual Worlds
Director of Virtual Worlds Group, Microsoft, with co-presenter James Mahoney of Microsoft

Linda Stone is a conceptual leader in the effort to create both community and content on the computer. She created and now directs Microsoft's Virtual Worlds team, a joint effort by engineers, artists, and animators to develop multi-user, multimedia technologies for the construction of social environments that really work on a human level. With collaborator James Mahoney she will discuss her group's approach to virtual worlds which blends sociology, design and technology with the goal of enhancing net-based relationships.

Peter Bosselmann Representation of Places, Reality and Realism in City Design
University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Urban Design and Director of the Environmental Simulation Laboratory www4.ced.berkeley.edu:8004/research/simlab/  

In his new book, Representation of Places, Bosselman asks how the experience of a rich and complex world - both the world we know and the changed world that designers envision - can be adequately communicated. The designers' representation of planned structures and their environment significantly influences what gets built. Can computer-generated visual urban simulations accurately match a designer's conception to a future reality?

Ed Lazowska Participating Moderator
Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington.

His recent research includes parallel discrete-event simulation, scheduling policies for micro processors, kernel structures to support high- performance computing, programming system for networks of multiprocessors, effective program performance monitoring tools for parallel systems, interaction of hardware and operating system design, hardware and software techniques for high-performance communication, and programming system support that exploits wide-address architectures.

A concluding panel discussion will feature an exchange of ideas among the key speakers and the moderator.

Where: Kane Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
When: Saturday October 3, 1998 9:00 am- 4:00 pm (lunch organized individually)
Cost: $20.00 for MIT club-members, $30.00 for non-members.
Website: http://amphioncom.com/seattlecityofbits/
RSVP: Sign up before September 21, 1998 by contacting Arlene Kisiel at aakisiel@alum.mit.edu or (206) 223-5093 at work.
Organizers: Nils C. Finne, AIA Grant Gustafson, AIA and Arlene Kisiel Sponsors: Jeanette and David McKinley Endowment for the Design of Future Architectural Environments and Naramore Foundation, Seattle Architectural Foundation, M.I.T. Alumni Foundation.
With assistance from: University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning AIA Seattle Finne Architects Big Kid Design Club - Graphic Design Amphion- Website Design