14 March 15:00h Lecture by Jose Sanchez: Architecture for the commons

Architecture for the commons

Architecture of the commons is a lecture that emerges as a form of resistance to a parametric agenda and the socio-economical implications it entails. Central to the argument is a criticism of the competition model in architectural design, which has conquered the decision-making process of public architecture, parametrizing the free labour of young architects and design firms and devaluing the practice of the discipline.

By rediscovering the commons in an age of social connectivity, it is possible to make an argument for the production of design and value in distributed non-exploitative networks. The advocacy of parts and discrete architectures is rooted in a necessity of a vast combinatorial library that can allow design to perpetually remain novel in the hands of an active social system. The advent of technologies like video games comes to reinforce the role of human intelligence that is coupled with algorithmic augmentations.

In a time of a proliferation of neoliberal agendas, it has become necessary to understand the forces and infrastructures that can create an opposition. ‘Architecture of the Commons’ is the construction of a design framework that emphasizes the open source cooperation of architects with a community at large, utilizing socially enabled technology to accelerate the proliferation of value for multitudes.

Jose Sanchez

Company: founding director Plethora Project llc
University: Assistant Professor University of Southern California

Jose Sanchez is an Architect / Programmer / Game Designer based in Los Angeles, California. He is partner at Bloom Games, start-up built upon the BLOOM project, winner of the WONDER SERIES hosted by the City of London for the London 2012 Olympics. He is the director of the Plethora Project (www.plethora-project.com), a research and learning project investing in the future of on-line open-source knowledge He is also the creator of Block’hood, a city simulator video game exploring notions of crowdsourced urbanism named by the Guardian one of the most anticipated games of 2016.

He has taught and guest lectured in several renowned institutions across the world, including the Architectural Association in London, the University of Applied Arts (Angewandte) in Vienna, ETH Zurich, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure D'Architecture in Paris.

Today, he is an Assistant Professor at USC School of Architecture in Los Angeles. His research ‘Gamescapes’, explores generative interfaces in the form of video games, speculating in modes of intelligence augmentation, combinatorics and open systems as a design medium.