Urban design in the digital age: a literature review of telework and wired communities

Abstract

To understand the future direction of urban design in the digital age, this paper reviews the relation between telework – as one aspect of telecommunication – and wired residential communities – as one type of new settlement. It begins with a brief review of cities and telecommunication, and focuses on teleworkers' characteristics in the literature that affect their urban preferences in wired residential communities. The paper addresses the fundamental lifestyle transformation caused by telecommunication technology through changing live/work arrangements to recognize the key design attributes that play different roles. It concludes with a new priority for urban design in the digital age where diversity goes beyond all other design attributes, and notes a negative emphasis on physical accessibility which could be compensated through telecommunication. This review of the literature opens discussion on the future direction of urban design based on teleworkers' lifestyle that needs to be corroborated in future empirical studies.

Keywords:

• Urban design
• telework
• wired residential communities
• online communication
• digital age

Notes

1. This description is used by Clifford to represent a scenario of individuals who use their place of residence as the basis of their convergent lifestyle.

2. This description is used by Clifford to represent a scenario of individuals who use their place of work as the basis for their convergent lifestyle.

3. This description is used by Clifford to represent the scenario of individuals who live a convergent lifestyle based on working and living (using the Internet as a transportation and communication medium) wherever their travels take them.

4. Digital divide refers to the gap between the connected populations and the unconnected ones: the people who have access to the Internet and those who do not.

5. Third Places (Oldenburg 1989) are neither home nor work but venues like coffee shops, bookstores, and cafes in which we find less formal acquaintances. According to Oldenburg, these third places comprise “the hearth of a community's social vitality” where people hang out simply for the pleasure of good company and lively conversation.