Data Cities explains how rocket science and electronic technologies are transforming how we live and understand architecture, as networks of semiconductors, satellites, scanners and sensors convert light into unprecedented formats and contents of information. Flows of data will inform our future behaviours in physical, virtual and hybrid-reality situations, and architecture and cities are being reinvented as not merely static structures, but places that pulse.

Davina Jackson surveys exceptional projects created by leading architects, scientists, artists, engineers, geographers, urban planners, gamers, gardeners, filmmakers and musicians, including Lichtarchitektur by Asymptote, Yann Kersale, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Bruce Munro and Leni Schwendinger; VR and AR demos by Greg Lynn, William Latham and Joe Paradiso; creative robotics by Carlo Ratti, Patrick Tresset, Zaha Hadid and Boston Dynamics; laser-cut constructs by Alex Haw and Patrick Keane; living architecture by Philip Beesley, Rachel Armstrong and Mitchell Joachim; space schemes by Foster + Partners and BIG; public buildings by MVRDV, Wolfgang Buttress, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Santiago Calatrava, Coop Himmelblau, UN Studio, WOHA, SHoP, LAVA and MAD; atmospheric concepts by Philippe Rahm, Daan Roosegaarde and Bruce Ramus; city modelling by UCL CASA, 300.000 KM/s, ETH-Zurich and MIT; and underwater and aerial designs by Marc Newson, Ars Electronica-Spaxels and Kleindienst.