Adhocracy » Economy

Sleeping Area

Mattia Spresian — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 09:19:01 +0000

A series of demolitions of the interior brick walls of an abandoned block in the city center. The demolitions unify the block at the level of a chosen floor. The example we use here is a block defined by the streets Dragatsaniou, Stadiou, Aristidou and Evripidou in Central Athens. The different buildings of the block were not build at the same period and there is no general plan predefining the yards of the block. The unified interior at the level of an upper floor organizes a possible redistribution for the new space. An addition of light metallic stairs is necessary in order that the space functions as a new entity. Architecture happens here as an addition of simple furniture that inhabit the space. Some generic scenography performed by table, beds and their hybrids organize an idiosyncratic furniture occupation of the open space. The project proposes a system of elementary dwelling settings but also installs the rationale of beds in a normal office landscape. The space is defined as a system of protocols; the sleeping area can become an idiosyncratic hotel, a multiple kitchen, a school of dialogue rooms (a transformed university structure) or a “beamer hall”. A hybrid space in between a hotel and an office, the Sleeping Area is programmatically defined by small scale scripts performing in relation to a system of furniture-like objects.

Opendesk

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 16:23:49 +0000

Opendesk is a global platform for local making. It gathers a global network of makers and a collection of furniture by a range of international designers. Because that furniture is designed for digital fabrication, it can be downloaded as a digital file and made locally—on demand, anywhere in the world. The “Edie” stools used in this exhibition were designed by David and Joni Steiner and fabricated using this “open-making” process. If Enzo Mari were a hacker, he would also design furniture as software.

#OccupyGezi Architecture

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 13:06:04 +0000

Herkes İçin Mimarlık (Architecture For All) is a non-profit and independent architecture organization based in Istanbul devoted to offering architectural solutions to social problems, which are faced today in Turkey and beyond. Also, it promotes participatory design process in architecture education.

Sí Se Puede

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 10:09:07 +0000

This documentary shows a common week of the tireless activities driven by Barcelona‘s Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH). The PAH is the organisation behind Spain’s anti-eviction movement, and has successfully resisted over 1000 evictions since it was founded in 2009. The cameras placed at the heart of the organization depict not only the post-housing bubble drama but most importantly the huge invisible work behind the PAH and the deep process of transformation and empowerment of those who participate in it. Because, those who care of people are taking care of the commons.

Crafting Neightbourhoods

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:54:06 +0000

Şişhane district is a 100 years old craft neighbourhood in İstanbul. Since 2006, Made in Şişhane looks at the unmediated design practices and crafts knowledge in the neighbourhood which is threatened by gentrification and state led policies to remove small scale production from the city center to periphery. How does the production process is integrated to the space, and the neighbourhood become a collaborative network? Meet Artin Aharon, one of the local masters, showing us how to take care of the commons with his own hands and experiences.

OpenStructures

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:51:57 +0000

The OS (OpenStructures) project explores the possibility of a modular construction model where everyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared geometrical grid. It initiates a kind of collaborative Meccano to which everybody can contribute parts, components and structures. It is an ongoing experiment that wants to find out what happens if people design objects according to a shared modular grid, a common open standard that stimulates the exchange of parts, components, experiences and ideas and aspires to build things together.

DRM Chair

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:46:26 +0000

The DRM Chair has only a limited number of uses before it self-destructs. The number of use was set to eight, so everyone could sit down and enjoy a single time the chair. A small sensor detects when someone sits and decrements a counter. Every time someone sits up, the chair knocks a number of times to signal how many uses are left. When reaching zero, the self-destruct system is turned on and the structural joints of the chair are melted. That’s planned obsolescence experienced in its essence!

Ethical Things

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:23:04 +0000

It’s part of the greater dream of progress to incrementally unload burdens of our daily lives to more autonomous and smart objects. However the more information we feed them the more complex is to take decisions.

If a “smart” coffee machine knows about its user’s heart problems, should it accept giving him a coffee when he requests one? The system will be designed to take into account certain inputs, to process a ‘certain’ type of information under a ‘certain’ kind of logic. How are these “certainties” defined, and by whom? How are these autonomous systems going to be able to solve problems without objective answers? And, moreover, as the nature of ethics is very subjective, how will machines be able to deal with the variety of profiles, beliefs, and cultures?

The Ethical Things project looks at how a very mundane object like a fan, might face complex dilemmas, and can source answers and determine its behaviour by asking to crowdsourced workers. Rather than focusing on creating complex and possibly erroneous algorithmic smartness, we outsource the choice to people and allow users to set the ethical parameters chosen to find the right remote “Ethical Agent”.

Suujin Maintenance Club

Mattia Spresian — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:03:00 +0000

Initiated in 2008, Research for Architectural Domain (RAD) explores the “Architecture of whereabouts”. Challenging the core ideas that architects try to realize through buildings, RAD inquiries in how can architectural thought be fixed to a vehicle other than “construction”. RAD develops participatory projects, hosts talks and discussions, offering new visions on preservation, sharing and disseminating urban knowledge. By generating a place of freedom for hosting experimental architectural work, RAD is anticipating strategies to adapt architecture to further conditions that aren’t categorised or defined yet.

The Summer School for Applied Autonomy

Mattia Spresian — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 10:24:42 +0000

The Summer School for Applied Autonomy is a research initiative interested in capturing the complexity of the technical know-how but also the social, political and affective aspects involved in autonomous living. Its functioning is largely self-sufficient, tending towards environmental sustainability, and it is based on feedback loop circuits where its different outputs (from garbage to words) become inputs that re-feed the social and material body of the garden. Exploration of thematic fields such as self-sufficiency, open source knowledge, collaboration, self-reflection, urban development and exchange and gift economy is at the very base of the curriculum. The school welcomes everyone, but it can only support two residents per rotation, who must engage for a stay of one or two weeks. After the end of each rotation, the two groups overlap for one day, so that the first group transfers their knowledge to the next one. The days are structured via tasks and lessons, while each person is free to work on personal research.

The project was born in an artistic-academic context and completed the circle by becoming a learning site in its own right, infrastructure and aesthetics; a school promoting alternative pedagogies, deschooling, learning-through-experience and self-reflection. By shaping a new attitude towards the commons and collaboration, moving away from subjectivity and individualism, and by supporting decentralized, local production of goods and energy, we might be able to change institutions that fail to represent our contemporary society and culture and habits that harm the environment.