First edition 2005, 178 pages, € 64,00. ISBN 3-89649-978-5

Recently, communication networks experience the most significant and extensive innovations. They influence our architectural understanding of geographical spaces, urban forms, and immediate habitats. For this reason, they are also of prime importance for architects overcoming space and time distances since life is getting more dynamic, flexible, and mobile.
The focus in this dissertation is the seamless integration of video systems into buildings. It is explored that video systems expand the architectural space and reduce spatial and temporal interdependencies among humans and their activities. The excellence and main value of this work is the experimental realization of ideas and concepts. On the basis of hardware and software setups they are evaluated and revised. The development of prototypes and the implementation of practical applications underlie the postulates and the empirical investigations. They provide the basis for a generalization in the context of architecture.
To investigate the use and the possible integration of video systems into buildings the application IN:SHOP has been developed and implemented. IN:SHOP illustrates an approach to enhance reality in shopping areas and connects geographically distant persons and locations.

Silke Berit Lang has been a research assistant and PhD student with the Chair of CAAD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland. She earned her PhD in 2004 for her work on the investigation of video systems, especially 3D video, in an architectural context. She graduated from the University of Technology Munich, Germany (TUM) as a Diplom Engineer (Dipl.-Ing. Univ.) in Architecture in 2000 and received a degree in Information Architecture (Dipl. NDS ETHZ) from the ETH Zurich in 2001. Her research interests include information and communication technologies in architecture, building intelligence, global communication, human-computer interaction, video systems and enhanced environments.