OPEN SOURCE URBANISM
Seminar Faculty: Marcella Del Signore
In the last years we have witnessed an increasing transformation of the urban space directed from citizens’ initiatives all in the name of an open system of hardware and software that can be accessed and shared. Open Source Urbanism develops where cities’ urban forms connects with accessible information to directly inform and shape our urban environment. It is rooted in the idea of open source, where open software data is shared and implemented by anyone interested in contributing. As Saskia Sassen argues: “The City becomes an heuristic space. I see in an Open Source a DNA that resonates strongly with how people make the city theirs or urbanize what might be an individual initiative“.
The seminar aims to test scenarios for open-source design to address the undiscovered potential of cities by looking at the emerging possibilities of technology. Combining a more systemic and user integrated approach, we will work within a framework that combines a three step design process.
- PROTOTYPING (to define operative working models to test ideas at the urban scale through the lens of economic models, network systems, management protocols, social practices, cultural layers, urban policies and more)
- REPLICATION (to replicate and adapt open source urban prototypes in a variety of environments and contexts through shared design instructions and open source code)
- ADOPTION (to define scenarios for possible long term implementation in cities)
This three step process is an operative framework within which students will develop urban scenarios through a “design process” that many cities are now starting to engage as an emerging strategy to act on the urban environment on a short term.
