The 3rd-i Virtual City

Shanghai, China

Architects: META-Project

Year: 2010

A multi-media installation project in collaboration with V2_ from Rotterdam, Shanghai eARTS and Cybercity Ruhr from Germany, presented during the 2010 World EXPO in Shanghai. It links the Shanghai exhibition location – Dutch Culture Centre – with an twin exhibition located in Rotterdam for a cross cultural exchange around the theme “virtual city in the future”.

Today’s cities are no longer limited to the experience of physical spaces. Digital technologies provide new ways for architects to design their buildings. At the same time they influence the way city dwellers organize their everyday life. Consequently, cities are now understood as ‘Cybercities’, ‘Sentient Cities’, or ‘Hybrid Cities’. But how do we design for Hybrid Cities or Virtual Reality in the future?

Video robots become a remote controlled “third eyes”. The video robots can be controlled online via Skype and at both exhibition locations. This way the audiences can explore the physical architecture model landscape of visions for the future virtual city remotely in the live exhibition in Shanghai, developed by students, artists and architects in two teams from Rotterdam and Shanghai.