Niklas Maak – författare

If data is the greatest collective treasure of a digital society, basic material for business and politics: Why are the places where it is stored still so invisible? Niklas Maak, architectural critic and Professor for Architecture at Städelschule Frankfurt, explores this question in his new publication and envisions radical solutions for the future.

Serverfarmen sind in der digitalen Welt das, was früher Schlösser waren: der Sitz der Macht. Doch wenn Daten der größte kollektive Schatz einer digitalen Gesellschaft sind, das Grundmaterial für Wirtschaft und Politik, warum sind dann die Orte, an denen sie gespeichert werden, so wenig sichtbar?Gemeinsam mit Studierenden der Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main zeigt Niklas Maak, wie die Zukunft der wichtigsten neuen Bautypologie des 21. Jahrhunderts aussehen könnte – und welche neuen kollektiven Orte eine Stadt im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung braucht."Dies ist ein historischer Moment. Daten sind zur wertvollsten Ware der Welt geworden. Wir dürfen sie nicht einer Handvoll Tech-Giganten überlassen. Wir müssen sie als öffentliches Gut begreifen, das neben Straßen, Wasser und sauberer Luft eine Kritische öffentliche Infrastrukturdarstellt. Zu diesem Zweck brauchen wir, was Niklas Maak ein ''Centre Pompidou fürs digitale Zeitalter'' nennt." — Francesca Bria

Server farms are to the digital world what castles used to be: the seat of power. If data is the greatest collective treasure of a digital society, basic material for business and politics: Why are the places where it is stored still so invisible?Together with students from the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Niklas Maak shows what the future of the most important new building typology of the twenty-first century might look like—and what new collective places a city needs in the age of digitalization."This is a historic moment. Data has become the most valuable commodity in the world. We can''t leave it to a handful of tech giants. We must conceive of it as a public good and a critical public infrastructure, alongside roads, electricity, water, and clean air. To that end, we need what Niklas Maak calls a ''Centre Pompidou for the digital age.''" — Francesca Bria

Wenn Daten der größte kollektive Schatz einer digitalen Gesellschaft sind, Grundmaterial für Wirtschaft und Politik: Warum sind die Orte, an denen sie gespeichert werden, immer noch so unsichtbar? Diese Frage untersucht Niklas Maak, Architekturkritiker und Professor für Architektur an der Städelschule Frankfurt, und entwirft radikale Visionen für die Zukunft.

If data is the greatest collective treasure of a digital society, basic material for business and politics: Why are the places where it is stored still so invisible? Niklas Maak, architectural critic and Professor for Architecture at Städelschule Frankfurt, explores this question in his new publication and envisions radical solutions for the future.

How do we want to live? How shall we build? Where can we find ideas for the houses and cities of the future? Niklas Maak and Johanna Diehl focus their attention on these highly topical questions in their joint project “Eurotopians”. In times of change this volume casts its backward gaze on the work of European utopians in order to find visions for the present.During the 1960s and 1970s visionary architecture was created in Europe which raised fundamental questions about our current ideas of how we should live. Many of these buildings are in ruins and their architects forgotten – although they still live there. Maak visited them and created an “archaeology of the utopian”, which shows that important ideas for the world of tomorrow can be found in the ruins. Johanna Diehl has taken impressive photographs of great intensity. In the ruins of these utopias of the modern age she discovered pictures of revolutionary approaches to life which seem surprisingly topical.