In conjunction with the arrival of the Reprogramming the City book, Metropolis asked me to write an Op-Ed / Opinion piece for them: “By Simply Repairing Infrastructure, We’re Missing Huge Opportunities to Make Cities More Resilient and Responsive to Citizens’ Needs” which outlines why reprogramming existing assets is such a vital need for cities.
The culmination of years of research, exhibition, and projects, the Reprogramming the City book is now available! “Anyone reading Scott Burnham’s essential book will emerge reassured by the transformative power of agency and creativity in the world’s urban centers that is still within our grasp.” – Renée Loth, Editor, AchitectureBoston Reprogramming the City is a 214-page, full-color collection …
Phone booths are an endangered urban species, joining the ranks of newspaper boxes, parking pay meters, and other urban elements whose original function has been replaced by technology and changing social behavior. A common thread runs through all these pieces of the urban landscape that are too quickly deemed to be obsolete: they contain a …
UPDATE: The Reprogramming the City book is NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE! The book features the most innovative projects from the five Reprogramming the City exhibitions and initiatives I’ve created to date, along with a curated selection of new projects that reprogram existing urban assets for additional use. From billboards in Lima, Peru, repurposed to generate clean …
During recent talks in Oslo and Malmö, I’ve been showing how a simple shift in thinking can open awareness and generate new possibilities. My goal in that specific part of the presentation is to get audiences to expand their thinking about how existing urban assets could be used in different ways, but the “conditional thinking” approach is an …
The course I teach for the University of British Columbia is being offered again this year as an online workshop, and registration is now open. As UBC describes it… In this workshop we look at the potential of reusing, repurposing, and re-imagining a wide variety of urban assets, including existing infrastructure, materials, buildings, structures, systems, …
Read moreWorkshop: Resourceful Design Innovation by Re-imagining Existing Urban Assets
Stockholm communication agency Le Bureau put together a video overview of their campaign for my Reprogramming the City initiative at ArkDes, the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design. The agency did a fantastic job of taking the central “What If…” catalyst behind the project and amplifying it across media, outdoor billboards and interactive displays, creating an …
Read moreStockholm’s “What If” Campaign for Reprogramming the City