Google Campus One, Driverless Vehicles, and the Ethics of Systems Spaces

The increasing presence of digital technologies in the design, fabrication, and the day-to-day function of buildings themselves has led to an increasingly close relationship between architects, programmers, and hardware engineers. This balance of the relationship seems to tilt ever towards more scope for the digital developers, whose appetite for increasing influence appears to be without limit. It is necessary to question the extent to which architects are partners or passengers in the spatial goals of companies such as Google, who are branching into the built environment through a variety of innovations. Furthermore, this paper will demonstrate how the design of systemic instruments results in the encapsulation ethical positions. Through case study examination of the practices of Google, including its generalized business model and emerging inventions, this paper contextualizes and speculates on the shifting value and values of the spatial designer in the current epoch.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.106.58

Volume Editors
Amir Ameri & Rebecca O'Neal Dagg

ISBN
978-1-944214-15-9