Spaces of flow as technical and cultural mediators between society and nature

Modern societies organize and consume their basic natural resources in great technical infrastructures of transport, supply, communication, and information. Together with these infrastructures a new culture emerged, which influences since the 19th century the perception of nature. This article reflects on technical infrastructures as spaces of flow, which mediate technically and culturally between society and nature and on the necessity to evolve a new cultural perception of them. The vital importance of technical spaces of flow for daily life will be shown in the first part. The second part reveals the history and some characteristics and environmental impacts of technical spaces of flow. Their threefold spatial structure and typical conflicts arising at each spatial segment will be described in the third part. The last part investigates the cultural perception of technical spaces of flow, the natural resources they mediate and the environmental impacts they cause. They are the technical spaces and flowing processes themselves, which lead to a false cultural perception of the modern interaction with nature and to the necessity of political, technical, esthetical, and planning measures in order to make spaces of flow and flowing processes “visible” and to evolve a new, sustainable consumption culture.