new normal

Emerging technologies and processes have so thoroughly infused the fabric of our cities that to even think about ‘urban design’ now requires a fresh understanding of how these new processes work, and in what ways they might be challenging our shared cultural, economic and political fabric.
From 2017 to 2019, The New Normal Speculative Urbanism think tank at Strelka Institute reflected on this new paradigm to catch up to this new context set in motion by the age of global computation, data analytics and algorithmic governance.
Led by design theorist and author Benjamin H. Bratton in collaboration with a vast network of experts and contributors and researchers, the multidisciplinary effort employed a range of tools and approaches from a wide variety of disciplines—from architecture and urbanism to film & cinema, interaction design, software design, humanities & social sciences, game design, economics, and more - to propose collaborative projects updating our contemporary urban toolkit. As such, the project became a platform for the invention and articulation of a new discourse and new models for urban design practice.
Each year the think tank was joined by a group of 30 Russian and international researchers for an intense five-month period guided by a core group of faculty contributors / experts and linking conceptualization and prototyping through a mixture of seminar, studio, field trip, and technical workshops.