What Architects Must Know About Open Source Architecture
Date Posted: March 18, 2021
Posted In: Ideas,
From Rethinking The Future: The world of architecture is evolving radically and in the spirit of the 21st century, the housing industry has seen a paradigm shift. Not only styles like modernism and minimalism have gained popularity in recent times but also this century has seen a shift from the traditional construction process to empowering the people to build their own homes.
The ‘maker movement’ or ‘DIY- Do It yourself’ concept removed the need of builders and contractors from the process and gave rise to Open Source Architecture. This movement aims towards providing freely available plans, 3D renders, BOQs and drawings to the public, thereby giving a new perspective to low-cost housing.
Although some people in the architecture and designing field feel that open source architecture could result in the death of this profession and would generalize the design yet here are 5 firms taking forward this initiative and leaving their marking on the society.
ELEMENTAL
Alejandro Aravena received the Pritzker Prize in 2016, for designing over 2,500 units of social housing. However, the architect believed that this number was clearly not enough to provide a home to everyone worldwide, and therefore he used the platform of the award ceremony to announce that his firm ELEMENTAL was going to make its signature “half a house” designs accessible to the public via its website, allowing people to be involved in the process of building the house and adapt the design according to their contexts and surroundings.
Image 1 – Open Source Architecture © www.archdaily.com
CAMERON SINCLAIR’S OPEN ARCHITECTURE NETWORK
“I wish to create a community that actively embraces open-source design to generate innovative and sustainable living standards for all.”
With this empowering thought in mind, Cameron Sinclair set on a journey in 2006 to end the housing crisis of the world, and since then with his determination, he was able to touch the lives of 1.6 million in over 70 countries by forming a large community of building professionals.
His only network was able to establish easy collaboration between designers facing similar challenges thereby getting in more perspective in the field of group housing and providing humanitarian-based, scalable solutions.
Image 2 – Open Source Architecture © www.inhabitat.com