“Pao 1” was one of two experimental structures devised by Toyo Ito in the late 1980s. It consisted of a metal tensile structure, skinned like a drum, housing simple, task-oriented furnishings for sleeping, dressing, and consuming. The Paos predict a future in which the tide of technological infrastructure and urbanity rises to such a degree that domesticity is reduced to, as the name (Japanese for “yurt”) suggests, a thin membrane of shelter coupled to a digital mainframe. “Anew architecture is only possible in the sea of consumption,” Ito claimed. The project can be read as a response to the context in which Ito was working, a moment when the density and cost of space in Tokyo was skyrocketing in tandem with consumerism and industry. But the new domestic environment he envisioned has since become a reality for most of us as well, as we outsource our basic needs almost as effectively as his “Tokyo Nomad Girl” (notably modeled by a young Kazuo Sejima). Clothes are cleaned in laundromats, food is cooked in restaurants, goods are produced in industrial complexes far away—and it’s all delivered on demand. What remains, namely the ability to purchase or arrange any of the preceding tasks, as well as to consume information and communicate with others, is accessed through a digital portal. As these dynamics accelerate, the practice of architecture becomes the task of programming what little we have left—a job, as Ito demonstrates, done better by furniture than drywall. Words by @sinasohrab.