HOW WILL THE AGE OF DEMATERIALIZATION INCARNATE ITSELF IN URBAN FORM ?

2 years ago I was at  the library of Aix-en-Provence university, which reminded me a lot of the Florence university library I've been to once by accident, probably because of all the pine trees outside. The cypress and the whole atmosphere didn't feel as nice as in Florence of course, as you didn't feel like you were in a palace dedicated to the joy of thinking and the charm of philosophy, built for Gods living in a problem-free paradise. Still, may be the Aix-en-Provence library will gain some charm in a few centuries, seen as the testimony of  times where everyone could get higher education, even though the state had to decrease the quality of public buildings, in order to match democratic purposes. But this far-in-the-future situation will never occur, as the Aix library will definitively not last for several centuries.

All right Gentle Viewers, after this brief interlude about libraries, let's go back to the main point. So I was at the library reading about how the transformations of society, through the transformation of means of production and the subsequent re-organisation of power,  always induced a very important transformation of cities shapes.  2 exemples easy to understand : 

- the 1st revolution during the Renaissance, the passage from the medieval city to the classical city, had for material consequences, among others, the fact that ramparts were destroyed

- the industrial revolution, from the XIXth to the XXth : science and technical knowledge transformed city shapes by building infrastructures, sewer systems, and all kind of material networks.

But for the 3rd step of Modernity, the one we're living now , caracterized with expressions like "the increase of individualization", "a more and more complex process of social differenciation ", "a society of risk", and of course the importance of dematerialization, the book didn't give any material consequences in city structures. May be cos they didn't happen yet. Trying to anticipate what this new incarnation could be, this sudden vision came to my mind and made me laugh for at least 30 seconds : 

This, of course, can not be the right answer, as homeless people existed for ever through history and can't be specific to the age of dematerialization.

Try to anticipate what this will be (apart from sensitive screen at the train station and bus stop...), you'll see its pretty hard. Im still searching.

AP