NET_CITY: A collaborative environment to promote the understanding of the contemporary city

The phenomenological dimension of today's urbanscape has to be extended beyond what is directly experienced by an individual. In order to grasp the new dimensions of the city, citizens need to understand it through the modes of perception that are peculiar to our global culture. This was the pedagogic hypothesis that was the basis for a two-week workshop on urban perception offered at the Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona in the summer of 2001. The workshop's goal was to construct a conceptual framework that would enable students and citizens to understand their urban environment. The workshop was designed to bring together contempo rary ideas about urban space and information technology in a theoretical and practical way. It consisted of two parts: a series of lectures addressing the modes of perceiving and representing the city over time and exercises on urban perception that students and citizens carried out collaboratively, using a Web-based environment especially developed for the project.