Silicon Valley as physical form and immaterial symbol.

Name, title and affiliation
Birgitte Bundesen Svarre (birgittes@gehlarchitects.dk)
PhD-candidate
Center for Public Space Research
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark

Short Biography
Birgitte Bundesen Svarre is PhD candidate at center for Public Space Research, Royal School of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen. She holds an MA in Modern Culture from the University of Copenhagen. Since June 2008, she holds the position as research coordinator at Gehl Architects.

She is currently finishing her PhD dissertation on urban suburban spaces with Vangede, a Danish suburb, and Silicon Valley as cases. The studies are carried out with focus on the symbolic layers of the city seen in relation to the physical reality.

Abstract
The name Silicon Valley is known worldwide as a name, as a brand of a high-tech region. But only few know the location of the region, and even fewer have stories to tell of the architecture of Silicon Valley. Despite the fact that the region does not exist as a geographic entity, several companies are part of a mental geography, so location becomes extremely important despite the absence of dominant physical or geographical structures – or maybe because of the lack of structures. This talk will present examples of urban suburban spaces of Silicon Valley and examine the relation between the physical build form and the symbolic layers.