The Position of Towns in Digital Construction Technology Environment

Abstract

The position of towns in the traditional hierarchy was clear and defined. Their place and importance were defined by their structure, contents, and functions. Compared to cities, they had harmonized relationships that were more or less balanced and mutually beneficial. In towns, people lived in the conditions they provided, and migratory flows were a necessary consequence of the gravitational impacts of cities. Nowadays, city digitization has become a reality. The notion of the so-called digital or “smart city” encompasses, first and foremost, large and medium-sized cities, filling their urban parameters with the values given by computer science, from the planning process to the smallest streams and services in the processes of urban life. This “city in a city” or invisible city that constantly flows and manages the flows of everyday city needs has expanded into a global net they can no longer escape from. Cities need this as such globalization has given a whole new dimension to their existence and functioning. What about the position of towns? Are they necessarily sucked in and involved in this process of connection, or are they isolated and left to themselves? It would be logical to expect them to be part of one such global integration. But is it really so? By its very nature, a town has low resources and potentials, and it could be incorporated into a broader integrative process primarily from that point of view. Increasing these resources would necessarily mean that it would grow into a city, which could not be expected in most cases. The first issue would lie in the very desire (ability) of a town to become a city. Abandoning such a desire would confirm the path to (self) isolation. The very position of a town could thus be found in proper assessing of its contents and fitting into the network of integrated cities and areas that is constantly growing and developing. Who could do this and in what way? A modern digital city has a large and well-developed power to manage its urban flow from the biggest issues to the smallest detail. That power, capacity, impact, and reach could be channeled to towns to provide them with the services they need.