Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation students David Zhai and Alexis Burson jumped way ahead of the curb with their “Ubiquitious Network” entry into the d3: Housing Tomorrow competition. Their fusion of data exchange, living space, and urban farming earned them a selection in the New York category of the competition.

The design is for an arrangement of high and low density housing to be built around a network of towers containing vertical farms and data servers.  Revenue from the servers would be used to offset housing costs for residents and their excess heat would be used like in a greenhouse to help grow food in the vertical farms.Parking is all located underground and a light rail system is proposed to run through the development.

This interwoven information grid provides a perfect system to build a smart complex on. Internal communication and socialization is encouraged by the system. Integrated biometrics provide feedback on health and lifestyle and will even be used in harmony with emergency services. When households wish for more privacy, a technology called the “Data Negation Space”, a 21st century membrane akin to the Faraday Cage of the 19th allows residents to filter in and out certain information or even cut off feedback altogether.

With the easily adaptable technology we have today and that which will be developed over the next 50 years, possibilities for integration with the Ubiquitous Network are almost endless. Think about how useful it would be to integrate the planned public transport stops arrivals, departures, and changes in schedule with a fully responsive information system? Or how effective feedback on recycling and trash generation would be to encourage green practices?

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