Transactional Urbanism - Resilience in the epoch of collaborative consumption

The city once understood as homogenous and static is at the centre of a rapid metamorphosis driven by the nexus of socio-economic, political and technological change. The shift into intangible domains was prophesied in Jean Gottmann's 'The Coming of the Transactional City' (1983). Gottmann posits cities as hosting environments for transactional activities, an early observation of ubiquitous information services. The global financial crisis of 2008, and ensuing economic and political uncertainty, further catalysed a series of opportunistic economies of collaborative consumption that have commodified and intensified the city and its architecture. These platforms are vital intermediaries and augmented interfaces between 'users' and urban environments - how contemporary cities and architecture are experienced and infrastructures valued. How might design through information flows catalyse more resilient and robust urban form? What is urban resilience within the milieu of the 'gig' economy? The paper will present paradigms for the impact and transformation of new economies on the fabric of the city, focusing on how the shift from 'ownership' to 'access' has fundamentally co-opted the built environment through architectural and urban interventions. It will be illustrated through various lenses - living, working, mobility and in-between. These peer-to-peer platforms present an accelerated version of existing distribution systems of city. The proffer an opportunity to leverage, reassess, and speculate about the future of the city. The research draws from both precedent and design provocation to assess how architecture and urban design is valued in the post-urban, post-critical era.