2012 Architecture & Planning in Times of Scarcity Reclaiming the Possibility of Making

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/1787

Browse

Browsing 2012 Architecture & Planning in Times of Scarcity Reclaiming the Possibility of Making by Author "Basso, Matteo"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Scarcity thinking and planning theories
    (SoftGrid in association with AESOP and IFHP, 2014) Basso, Matteo
    Planning contemporary cities requires new capacities of dealing with a great complexity of unexpected problems which have been challenging the established professional practices and creating an intense theoretical debate among academics. Obviously, this is not a new issue for planning theory and practice. In fact, since the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, a lot has been written with reference to the inefficacy and the impacts of the so-called ‘rational-comprehensive’ models of planning. In the Anglo-Saxon context, for instance, many planning theorists – for the most belonging to the field of political science and public policy analysis – have been arguing the limitations of such a decision-making approach for a long period of time. Among the huge amount of contributions, Lindblom (1959) and Altshuler (1965) have brilliantly pointed out the inadequacy of and the dissatisfaction with this dominant paradigm, focusing on the gap between goals and outcomes of planning policies 1. For Lindblom such an approach, far from being concretely practiced, represents indeed only an ideal and abstract formalisation. Planning processes – according to them – are dominated by persistent conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty concerning problems, goals and means which basically undermine the intellectual capacity of computing and dealing with them2 . Likewise, it has become extremely difficult for experts to take into account and assess the whole range of policy alternatives.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Software update for bromley-by-bow
    (SoftGrid in association with AESOP and IFHP, 2014) BjörnBracke; Dudek, Dominika; Basso, Matteo; Santosm Rui; Grammatikopoulos, Fotis
    Build resilient communities! Complete dependence on external capital carries the threat of disequilibrium: revenue ‘flows out’ of the region Community based development is likely to give rise to a self-sustained system with revenue staying in the region; Governmental institution/regulations should be cautious of business models which allow to transfer the revenue outside of districts Local leaders should press for profit re-investment in the region Policies should support the establishment of small scale cooperative housing with appropriate financing and regulatory mechanisms For instance...gamification Collective ‘green’ action provides benefits for neighbourhoods: More natural and pleasant living environment Common goals (to become sustainable!) empower people Possibility to generate savings (generating own energy, etc...) The main challenge in raising public awareness of environmental issues is to restore the understanding of how the use of space and resources is related to environmental and social consequences. Therefore we have to connect technical and behavioural aspects to social and ecological value chains. By using technological developments in the built environment we could provoke a shift towards ecological perception. In order to encourage people to adopt technological devices (e.g., ‘ecometers’) in an urban context, technological devices could be implemented through the concept of gamification. Gamification is the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts. Technological devices in combination with smartphone apps and social networks to connect citizens to institutions and (public) services result in hyper-connected environments that harness the network effects and increase the involvement and understanding of citizens.