copy-paste from http://www.fondation-langlois.org/zidarich/#

DO ARCHITECTS HAVE A ROLE IN CYBERSPACE AND ON THE INTERNET?
We are witnessing the start of a new era in architecture, with a new kind of space emerging: cyberspace. The Internet is a new infrastructure that can be understood as a virtual environment or world. It is a "non-physical" space, intangible but real. It is an architectural space that has not yet been designed. There is an urgent need to organize and design it.

Will this be the role of architects, as we know them today?

Will the discipline of architecture have to redefine its spectrum of knowledge to deal with the new space?

Is this a challenge for architects or graphic designers?

For better or for worse, new technologies are changing our lives. Architects must reevaluate their role and redefine the boundaries of the profession.

In the digital area, architects do not seem to be trained to deal with non-physical space. The profession does not have the tools to deal with problems rising from the nature of cyberspace. In order to be able to embrace the needs of cyberspace, architecture as a discipline will have to extend its boundaries and incorporate other disciplines such as those of graphics designers and computer engineers.
If architecture is interpreted as a bracket around the wide field of art and design, as the art of creating "usable" space and its organization, as the art of ensuring the "legibility" and orientation, identification and navigation of space, then the organization of the Web presents a new challenge for a future generation of architects.

The traditional role of the architect as romantic genius is over. For those of us in the profession of architecture, there will be interesting years to come.