The advent of the networked, global and distributed city might seem to support a new landscape urbanism that includes agriculture in the shrinking or fast expanding metropolis. Instead, a series of spectacular, high density, highly mediated, urban clusters of mixed-use towers is emerging as part of the new megacity pattern. Examples range from Piano's Shard in London, to the High Line in New York, to Koolhaas' CCTV headquarters in Beijing. This lecture questions the nature of the public space in these new urban complexes and how it relates to the widely distributed cities often found in Asia. How can designers tackle the issues of scale, use, clustering, memory and identity in the public space of the contemporary city?
David Grahame Shane studied at the AA School from 1963–1969 and received a Diploma for his 'Dream City' project, recently exhibited in the AA Drawing Show. He attended all three of Alvin Boyarsky's International Institute of Design Summer Session's whilst completing a Masters in Urban Design at Cornell under Colin Rowe (1970-1972). While completing a PhD in Architectural and urban History at Cornell, he taught as the 'Urban' Unit Master in 1972. Shane has led an accomplished career as an educator, writer and director of urban design programmes. Currently, he is a member of the Columbia University team starting the Global Metropolis Program based on the Studio X Network.