Urban Hyperobjects
Contemporary Urban Environment
ur·ban, adjective In, relating to, or characteristic of a town or city. “the urban population”.
Most people can agree that cities are places where large numbers of people live and work; they are hubs of government, commerce and transportation. But how best to define the geographical limits of a city is a matter of some debate. So far, no standardized international criteria exist for determining the boundaries of a city and often multiple boundary definitions are available for any given city. One type of definition, sometimes referred to as the “city proper”, describes a city according to an administrative boundary. A second approach, termed the “urban agglomeration”, considers the extent of the contiguous urban area, or built-up area, to delineate the city’s boundaries. A third concept of the city, the “metropolitan area”, defines its boundaries according to the degree of economic and social interconnectedness of nearby areas, identified by interlinked commerce or commuting patterns, for example. Even though humans have lived and studied cities for centuries, there isn’t yet a solid answer as to what they are, or moreover, what they should be. During this research we should understand the present-day city as a contemporary urban environment, a set of conditions and surroundings in which humans live and operate.
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