“I always keep an eye on the appearance of new technologies and the possibilities they generate”

William Mitchell was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in June 2006 at a ceremony that also honoured the former President of the Generalitat (the Catalan regional government), Jordi Pujol. Mitchell is professor of Architecture and a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his field of study involves a number of research projects.

William Mitchell was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in June 2006 at a ceremony that also honoured the former President of the Generalitat (the Catalan regional government), Jordi Pujol. Mitchell is professor of Architecture and a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his field of study involves a number of research projects.

Architecture and urban planning and their adaptation to the information society act as the framework for William Mitchell's field of study. This professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows intellectual and academic commitment to projects that reduce the distance between developed and developing countries. Mitchell, born in Australia, was awarded an honorary degree by the Open University of Catalonia in June 2006, at a ceremony that also honoured the former President of the Generalitat (the Catalan regional government), Jordi Pujol. I have designed buildings with the help of a computer and computer systems since the end of the sixties and start of the seventies. As the web has developed, I became aware of its importance in creating community and supporting the business generated, and this made me pay attention to the relations between physical space and networking. It was another way of supporting the generation of digital communities. In fact, both are important. As an architect, I am essentially a designer, but technology has to be used in all aspects relating to architecture. And, the same is true of the digital environment. Architects normally dovetail technology into our work. In creative tasks, it is very common for new tools to be invented that offer new possibilities, and this is constantly the case in urban planning.
In a project that we have underway at the moment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, we are reinventing the automobile in an urban setting. We are trying to make it extremely small and to make it work from the electricity supply; to a great extent controlled by computer and regulated by intelligent elements. And it does not have an engine, as we have used electrical robots to act as wheels. It doesn't have a gearbox either and many aspects are controlled using a computer screen. We want it to be very small and quiet, and efficient in terms of energy, as it works from the electricity supply. We also want it to offer city users mobility and freedom. Yes, this automobile is to be used alongside public transport: the idea is that it would be located right by bus and metro stations. In this way, public transport can cover long-distance journeys with lots of passengers, and the car we are developing can take you to your door, or offer more mobility. Yes, I am particularly aware of the new opportunities that technology creates. The Open University of Catalonia is an example of this: before the internet, this type of organisation would have been impossible. A new technology has arisen that allows for the design of a new type of university. Internet technology created opportunities for new types of business. For all these reasons, I always keep an eye on the appearance of new opportunities in technology and the possibilities they can generate for the development of resources for progress in society.
Nonetheless, it is true that many architects are happy to work with the existing standard technology. Technology can be very creative and lead to new opportunities. You have to bear in mind, however, that new opportunities do not become something useful automatically; we have to design using technology. Obviously, new technologies can also create atrocities. Yes, we are a research team made up of architects, urban planners, computer scientists, mechanical engineers, sociologists, a lawyer... This is an aspect that I have often talked about with professor Manuel Castells. It is a society with much greater levels of mobility, with more interconnectivity, with sub-groups belonging to very diverse and interconnected cultures, with questions like identity? I believe that societies have to have a strong local identity as well as a global world presence. The difference between professor Castells and me is that I have always focused on the effects of designing spaces in the physical world.
To get away from these great abstractions, we could use an example, such as the transformation seen in the workplace. A few years ago, we had a typewriter and paper, and now we take our wireless laptop computers with us around the world in a briefcase. An airport, a plane or a hotel room become workplaces. Likewise, traditionally, libraries were monumental buildings located at the heart of a city, and now anywhere with an internet connection can act as a library. Physical space is changing due to interconnectivity and, for this reason, architects have to design in new ways. Yes, homes become workplaces. This has positive and negative social consequences: it offers flexibility, but it is hard to establish limits between work and domestic activities. Likewise, a specific workplace has to be designed within the home itself. One of the main ones is the management of change in certain new technological conditions. This is taking place very quickly and has generated public debate on the rapid evolution of the society we live in. It is a difficult situation, as a large section of the population does not understand these new technologies.
The role of the designer consists of creating very clear and vibrant outlines and situations for the various alternatives for the future on offer. It is a very different question to the debate on abstract policies. This hole is very evident. Nowadays, no one denies that new technologies create inequality. People are rated in terms of the time when they gain access to technology, and the new technologies tend to magnify the differences. But digital technology and the internet can overcome these distances, because, fundamentally, connectivity is cheap and electronic instruments are increasingly small and affordable. For this reason, they are a very powerful tool for reducing social inequalities. Yes. One of the basic problems at universities in Islamic countries is that they have very few resources, even in terms of the documentation stored in their libraries.
For this reason, we have created a great amount of free materials and resources about Islamic architecture: it is one of the largest collections of images and material on the subject. The aim is for this to serve as help in the work of architects, urban planners, professors and students at universities in developing Islamic countries. We also provide them with computers. And this is an example of the use of digital technology with the aim of reducing the differences between universities in the developed and developing worlds. Yes, absolutely. It's a project that I proposed to the Aga Kahn [the spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims], and our task is to collect a range of materials and images related to Islamic architecture.
There is another project, which may be as interesting as this one, called OpenCourseWare, in which all the teaching material developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is made accessible and offered openly to universities in developing countries. This is also an attempt to reduce the distance between both worlds.