Open Source Urbanism – Hacking The City

There exist various different notions ofOpen Source Urbanism and in recent years various – sometimes cruciallydifferent - approaches to conceptualise phenomena in the contemporarymetropolis have been developed under this terminology. Saskia Sassen’s talk on Talkingback to your Intelligent City at the BMWLab last summer was recently putonline and has been inspiring this post.

I first came across the term of Open SourceUrbanism through following the work of UrbanCatalyst, a Berlin-based research and consultant group. In their article inthe architecture magazine Arch+ dating back to the year 2007 entitled ‘OpenSource Urbanismus: vom Inselurbanism zur Urbanität der Zwischenräume’  they explored the principle ofopen-source analogous to the development of computer software. Targetingalterations in urban policy, Urban Catalyst’s planning concept proposes toencompass a multiplicity of actors with diverse backgrounds to participate inthe planning process.  Open Sourceis therefore used as the metaphor for manifold ideas that should get involvedin working towards a more socially sustainable approach in urban governance andplanning. Also the concept of considering the urban landscape as a“palmipsest”, where new layers do not obscure all traces of their predecessorswould maintain a particular sense of place, that is often lacking incontemporary planning. According to Urban Catalyst it is veryimportant to allow for modifications and ameliorations during this process.This may also result in altering the initial planning goal. The issue ofparticipation and taping the resources inherent to the urban human fabric byfar is not a new concept, although urban policy makers have been advertisingthis approach extensively the last decade. Urban Catalyst further suggest tohack the city through modes of meanwhile uses and use the existinginfrastructures as sources for urban change. In fact, I would argue that thisdefinition of Open Source Urbanism dates back to the Situationist city ofUnitary Urbanism, where urban dynamics would no longer be driven by bureaucracyand capitalism but by participation. Adaptability and the flux, favouringprocess over goal, as well as participation are ideals that are vital for thisway of urbanism. Nevertheless the concept is not new, these topics are stillhighly topical in contemporary urban discourses.

'Fassadenrepublik' by raumlabor berlin as part of the project Zwischenpalastnutzung by Urban Catalyst (image source)

The connection of Open Source Urbanism and the Situationsts havealso been explored by more technologicallydriven approaches, that I will not go deeper into herein. What willprobably be the most influential debate on this terminology would be SaskiaSassen’s. She understands Open Source Urbanism as a type in which the city‘talks back’. The city can also be understood as an assemblage of myriadinterventions and little changes from the ground up (urban protests like theStuttgart). The power lies not so much in each single one of thoseinterventions, but more in the assemblage of those. Together they add meaningto the incompleteness of the city and the city talks back in a dynamic manner.And this very incompleteness, according to Sassen, is the power of the city,something which cannot be achieved by planning the technological intelligentcity like Songdoor Masdar. With herunderstanding of Urban Source Urbanism Sassen combines the understanding ofUrban Catalysts approach that what should be strengthened is that the city isconstituted by the existing materials and the existing human fabric with thetechnological approach towards urban Source. She understands the city not onlyas consisting of hardware – like the Intelligent City – but also as thesoftware of people’s practices. Intelligent cities are closed systems who willbecome obsolete sooner. 

Sassen draws on the example of New York’s Riverside Park, whichdeveloped from a no-go area to being a park for all those who wanted to use it,partly because dog-owners started to walk their dogs in large numbers. Dogkeeping was a reaction of feeling insecure in the neighbourhood. And the citytalked back: get a dog, of course you need to walk your dog, many others do,and therefore your recover the territory of the park. Similarly the increasingamount of farmers’ markets is also an example where the city talks back. It hasnot been a top-down decision. It’s a result of various conditions, butprimarily the desire of city resident to have access to fresh produce. Whatbecomes apparent here is that a thousand individual decisions enabled thepossibility for creating a viable farmers’ market.

Riverside Park dog run (source)

Sassen sees in Open Source ‘a DNA that resonates strongly with howpeople make the city theirs or urbanize what might be an individual initiative(…) Recovering the incompleteness of cities means recovering a space where thework of open sourcing the urban can thrive’.

Urban Gardening in St Petersburg, Russia

Environmental activism in post-sovietRussia used to be the country’s most dynamic and effective forms of socialactivism. In contemporary Russia, however, activists face severe obstacles inpromoting green issues. The SaintPetersburg Urban Gardening Club, founded as early as 1993, is stillstruggling with the authorities’ acknowledgments of its important work.  

St Petersburg rooftop.Image source.

Philipp Brugner from the Austrian radio broadcasting dérive – Radio für Stadtforschung produced an interesting comment on the urban farming initiative in the second largest city in Russia:  Urban gardening in St Petersburg often is afight for survival. With 5 million inhabitants plus approximately anothermillion illegal inhabitants, St Petersburg is the northernmost megacity of theplanet. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, St Petersburg has been a boom townfor jobseekers mainly due to its numerous construction projects. Nowadays thecity is facing huge problems as a direct consequence to its boom. The citygovernment is focusing on its own prestige with building projects like the Othka Center instead oftackling its socials problems: half of the population is living below povertylevel, 6000 people are homeless and 1600 children are living on the streets ofthe tsar city. Furthermore the city is facing enormous ecological problems,where air pollution and insufficient garbage disposal are only the mostapparent.

This is the setting the Urban GardeningClub (UGC) has to face. The history of urban gardening in St Petersburg datesback to the late 19^th century when rural aristocrats moved to thecity maintaining their rural lifestyle. During the time of the Soviet Uniononly retired and disabled persons were allowed to fulfil agriculturaloccupation for their own use. Gradually the rules had been relaxed and at leastat the urban fringes gardens for personal use could have been maintained, adevelopment known as the Russian dachafarming. After the collapse of the USSR, cultivating land has been a directresult of the following years of crisis. Many could have only survived throughproducing their own food.

Raised-bed gardening for horticultural therapy. St. Petersburg's Prostheses Center during the summer of 1996. Source.

Rooftop garden on top of a  school in 1996. Source.

The UGC’s first project suggested using theroofs of buildings as croplands for socially deprived groups, due to the trickyclimate obviously a very challenging endeavour. The big advantage was that theroof grown fruits and vegetables were less polluted with heavy metals thancrops from the ground. Further projects involved cultivating the roofs of cityprison with involvements of the inmates, or cooperating with primary schools and the St Petersburg Prostheses Centre. 

Alla Sokol at one of the UGC's rooftop gardens against the backtrop ot the St Petersburg cityscape. Source.

Although the city government has recognizedthe value of the initiatives of the club, Alla Sokol, founder of the UGC,points out that the government frequently obstructs new rooftop gardenprojects, since it is very difficult to obtain the licence for using therooftop as farmland. Especially in Russia, rooftop gardening has a hugepotential, as many people in larger cities live in buildings with huge sturdyrooftops constructed to bear the heaviest snow load. But many apartment blocks stillbelong to the government. Moreover, in blocks with only homeowners, usually thestaircases and the roofs stay the property of the government. Therefore it isvital for the success of the movement that the government is highly involved.

Furthermore the controls of the produce andcomposting plants of the institute of hygiene hinder the proliferation of themovement. Often they attest polluted crops although, as Sokol explains, thetests the UGC has commissioned, attest that the vegetables from the roof gardensare much less polluted than those that are grown on the ground.  Within these controls, Sokol senses justanother administrative barrier.

Although low income, reduction ofpurchasing power, and high prices force people into subsistence agriculture inSt Petersburg, urban farming has not proliferated over the city yet. Many stillprefer the long way to the countryside, to cultivate their dacha. 

Russian dacha. Source.

Article and interview with Alla Sokol via dérive – Radio für Stadtforschung, an Austrianradio broadcasting.

Happy Holidays with a Bunch of Urban Readings

The architecture typology of the year 2011 is the tent, via Urban Affect

SYNCHRONICITY is also going on holidays. Meanwhile, here are a couple of suggested reads/links:


Allison Arieff writes on pop-up urbanism. City of Sound elucidates what cites and neuroscience can learn from each other. Peter Frase imagines four futures of capitalism after OWS, whereas Al Gore and David Blood imagine a sustainable capitalism. Also check out this interview with Thomas Balsley as the person who has designed more POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces) than anyone else in New York City. Hito Steyerl on art as occupation. The economist explains the strange but extremely valuable science of how pedestrians behave. And finally, in this archive designers list their 3 favourite buildings.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays, and see you back in the new year! And check out my twitter page for more regular comments.

International Public Space Library

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IPSL book (source)

The International Public Space Library’s (IPSL) ambition is to offerbooks for free in public spaces all around the world. Soft-launched inSeptember 2010, under the light of the recent occupy movement the experimenthas gained new topicality.  Unlikea traditional library, the IPSL has no physical building or location. Each oneof the books, anonymously donated, contains an IPAL label and are left inpublic spaces, free to pick up. Readers are encouraged to return the book afterreading to the library by placing it at another space.

Anyone can donate a book to the IPSLcollection. Just download a PDF copy of the IPSL ex libris here or download the imagebelow, print and affix it inside the front cover of the books you want to shareand spread them (but make sure they don’t get wet). With more publicity this project potentially is able to build up the greatest library of the planet and fromulates a challenging growing spatial configuration of a library consisting of connections and movements of books. "Libraries are not made; theygrow." (Augustine Birrell(1850-1933), Chief Secretary of Ireland)

During the just started 7-day growingexhibition on Strategiesfor Public Occupation by the Storefrontfor Art and Architecture, the IPSL will launch a temporary ‘pop-up’ branch.This temporary library will offer a selection of books to help stimulate theongoing public discussion of economics, politics, society and culture that maybe reflective of the Occupy Wall Street movement and other social movementsthat have been or are currently powered by the free exchange of ideas,particularly through the sharing of books. At Liberty Plaza (Zuccotti Park) theoccupiers established The People’s Librarywith a collection of more thatn 5500 books, unfortunately most of them got missingafter the police raid to clear the park in November.

China's Rapid Urbanization

China's urbanization made visible from atop in this impressing video assembled with data from Google Earth. (link via polis)

Theory & Event - Supplement on OWS

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The Journal Theory & Event Volume 14 Number 4 published a supplement on Occupy Wall Street that is openly available for three month. Contributions are amongst others Slavoj Žižek on Actual Politics and the journal's co-editor Jodi Dean on Claiming Division, Naming a Wrong.

Walter Benjamin - One Way Street

John Hughes' film One Way Street: Fragments for Walter Benjamin (1993) provides a clear and accessible introduction to some of the central ideas in Benjamin's writings. Moreover, Hughes tries to translate some of Benjamin's ideas also visually through fragmentation using sub-frames, graphic overlaps and abrupt colour shifts. Definitely worth watching.