I guess Matias ( and co ? ) may be on this list too. I vaguely remember some similar kind of approach he studied for Mumbai informal settlements, some kind of scaffolding approach ?
I also remember Eric Hunting sharing, in some past conversations, links to a ( japanese ? ) assembly system ? ( sorry for being vague, links get lost in volume of information ) /// A Paper by Matias Echanove http://www.mmg.mpg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/wp/WP_13-13_Echanove.pdf *This essay looks at the theoretical meaning and practical implications of a much used and abused notion in urban planning and development circles, that of 'informal** settlements'.* more : http://urbz.net/ http://urbanology.org/ /// Also, regarding construction with ( pre fabricated ) modules, since plumbing is being mentioned, although more traditional / centralized / less participative , I noticed http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/02/features/high-speed-high-rise On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 3:54 PM, Fabio Barone <[email protected]> wrote: > While I see the idea of paracity very interesting, > a few questions arise: > > - How will water and sewage be organized? It seems it's up to the > "occupants" to deal with > - It will result in a maze of stairs and access ways. Could be > fun/beautiful, but maybe difficult? > - Would it not result in a lot of dark spaces inside the cube? > > But most importantly, I am interested in shedding light on this question: > - How can "organic" "p2p" "evolvable" "adaptable" city spaces be created > where there are no star-architects involved > or where no favorable city-planners are around? > > I mean sort of a bunch of individuals decide they want to create such a > structure (let's for simplicity sake assume they have some basic funds for > that...). > > I know that especially in Europe industrial areas in neglect / disuse > could serve this perfectly. > How about cities in Latin America, Asia or Africa, where these spaces are > not abundant > (that's where production takes place...) > > > 2014-03-16 14:43 GMT-05:00 Michel Bauwens <[email protected]>: > >> >> >> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> From: Eric Hunting <[email protected]> >> Date: Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 12:20 PM >> Subject: Paracity Article >> To: Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> >> >> >> >> Here's my attempt at a short article introducing the Paracity project. >> Let me know if you think it's useful. >> >> Eric Hunting >> [email protected] >> >> Paracity -- An Urban Organism >> >> http://casagrandetext.blogspot.fi/2014/03/paracity.html >> >> Paracity is a new project of Marco Casagrande which promises to be one of >> the first full scale demonstrations of a practical peer-to-peer urbanism. >> Taking advantage of a unique situation on the Danshui River Island in >> Taipei, Paracity explores a notion of positive urban parasitism, using a >> novel, freely adaptive, modular, volumetric structural skeleton serving as >> an urban 'backplane' that can subsume otherwise neglected/devalued urban >> environments, in this particular case an area prone to frequent flooding. >> Based on a fairly large span cubic structural grid made of cross-laminated >> timber, this backplane accommodates adaptation and habitation by retrofit, >> allowing for several possible tiers of social participation in the habitat >> from the high-level peer-managed deployment of the backplane structure and >> its key infrastructure elements to the more spontaneous and personalized >> retrofit deployment of individual dwellings, industry, and commerce. Here >> we see a totally evolvable urban habitat able to almost spontaneously >> accommodate any potential change in situation, environmental conditions, >> urban and domestic technology, and baseline standard of living without the >> strife associated with an anachronistic presumption of architectural >> permanence leading to ready obsolescence. This is 'city' as a verb. A >> freely evolvable urban organism with a declared evolutionary imperative of >> transitioning older urban habitats toward sustainable integration with the >> natural environment. A Post-Industrial habitat growing on the compost of >> Industrial Age urbanism. >> >> I find this project concept quite exciting because it incorporates many >> concepts I have been proposing and exploring for a long time. This is an >> urban development concept based on truly 21st century sensibilities, >> questioning the dominant presumptions about property, space, the role of >> architecture, and the role of inhabitants as creators and managers of their >> own habitat that characterize the inherent dysfunctions of contemporary >> cities. I have always wondered why cities are not designed with the >> practical sensibility of the network/data center--with a recognition of the >> simple reality that they persist as an application--an activity--in a >> constantly changing medium of hardware and technology. We are no longer >> limited by primitive construction technology with no means to adapt. Why >> then are cities commonly, physically, designed to dogmatically resist the >> constant evolution that is their very life-blood? It is this very >> resistance that is the root of their dysfunctions. The modern city is not a >> collection of architecture. It is not a physical thing. It is an >> epiphenomenon. An attractor to an emergent form, like consciousness is to >> the brain and like an operating system is to a cluster of computers. >> >> Paracity's architecture is most interesting in how it lays bare this >> paradigm. One might accuse it of being, superficially, a throw-back to the >> 'plug in' architecture of the '60s, and perhaps this is one of the reasons >> for a choice of a more organic primary structural material rather than the >> steel frame and concrete systems of the past. But it is more like one of >> those transparent 'visible body' models that turns our perspective >> inside-out by bringing its urban backplane out into the open as an overt, >> visible, architectural feature to be embraced for its bounty of adaptive >> use possibilities. This habitat revels in its nakedness and its perpetually >> unfinished state. >> >> The personal computer ran into an evolutionary rut at the time when it >> had the most diversity of systems architectures, their very deliberate and >> often pointless incompatibilities wielded like clubs by corporate interests >> vying for monopolistic control of market share. It was the old Industrial >> Age mindset abusing a Post-Industrial technology with its quaint notions of >> value and fuddy-duddy ideas about how money is supposed to be made. The >> industry had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the realization that >> market share was, in fact, keyed to interoperability rather than propriety. >> That the personal computer existed in a non-zero-sum ecology and made more >> profit the more you shared and cooperated. Today we have but a few, mostly >> open, mainstream personal computer architectures and more physical >> diversity in design, a more rapid pace of advance, and greater potential >> for personalization and customization than was ever imagined possible in >> the late 1970s and early '80s. >> >> Relegated to an upper tier of peer organization largely independent of >> the individual human-scale retrofit use, the modular backplane of Paracity >> is not so much an overarching architectural scheme as it is a genome in >> which an unlimited number of urban situations can be 'sequenced', >> expressed, and evolved. It imposes order and standardization to facilitate >> its ease of use and change, but doesn't impose any individual designer's >> ego over the aesthetic of the habitat. It is not megalomaniaclemegabuild. >> It's Lego. >> >> If realized, I think Paracity has the potential to be a breakthrough on >> many fronts. The community planned for Taipei promises to be a great >> opportunity for exploring peer-to-peer urbanism and the cultivation of a >> Post-Industrial culture rooted in the new technologies of alternative >> energy, sustainable resource use, urban farming, and independent production >> and economy. Being right in the midst of one of the world's most important >> and cosmopolitan cities, the catalytic potential is great. It could be an >> opportunity for people from around the world to converge on the >> experimentation and demonstration of a very new urban lifestyle without the >> hassles and hardships of retreating to the remote edge-of-wilderness >> locations so many intentional communities are relegated to. And it offers >> the prospect of creating a package of systems--a vernacular--that, like an >> urban version of OSE's Global Village Construction Set, can be freely >> disseminated through the medium of the internet and applied most anywhere. >> By virtue of the kind of technology used--the standardization and ready >> reproducibility and repurposing of this urban backplane--one could >> contribute to this project in many ways from anywhere in the world. This is >> most definitely a project to keep an eye on. >> >> >> >> >> -- >> *Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no >> record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..* >> >> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net >> >> <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: >> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens >> >> #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> P2P Foundation - Mailing list >> http://www.p2pfoundation.net >> https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > P2P Foundation - Mailing list > http://www.p2pfoundation.net > https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation > >
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