Playing utopia
Masterplan for Baugruppen housing, EU
We use online communities to advise each other on what to buy. We use online communities to ask people how to fix things. We help strangers find their lost dog. We treat people we’ve never met, or seldom see, as neighbours.
Apply this willingness to connect online to one of society’s major challenges – the unaffordable and, for most, impenetrable housing market – and we can create an alternative model for housing, which blurs the line between real and virtual communities. Harnessing a virtual community united by one desire – to own a home – means that we can create a self-build solution that overcomes many of the significant obstacles faced by individuals.
Members of this online community will be equipped with tools and strategies so they can actively participate in planning and building a housing development – interactions which help them select their requirements for location, space and budget.
Like a murmuration of starlings the online community has the intelligence to adapt its form as the planning process and development progresses. In some instances, members may have to change direction, or alter their plans, in response to real world influences– but by flocking together they can achieve their common goal.
Whilst the user journey begins in the virtual world, through a process of collective learning and decision making, it translates into a concrete building in the real world. A home.
Service: Creative Discipline
Location: Worldwide
Client: Self-build baugruppen
Cost: Undisclosed
Areas: Xm2
Dates: 2013 –
To Live In To Learn In To Work In To Play In