Hacking the System

I was impressed by “El Campo de Cabada” project shown in class this week as it was a project that demonstrated that architects can have an impact on our communities and are called to be leaders. Even in a recession climate, the community led by architects was able to utilize a space that was abandoned by the city and was seen as having little value by the government. This grassroots initiative allowed the community to create a space for their own needs and the whole process was that of a dialogue in which the decisions were arrived at through a consensus rather than a top down mandate.

This was all facilitated by use of the internet, which I think could be seen as an extension of the idea of “spatial justice”, because it extends across space to allow for dialogue, the sharing of ideas and the right to access to public realm. We can see this in Jeremy Tills article on “Scarcity contra Austerity” where he demonstrates a similar initiative to “El Campo” in Newcastle, Australia called “Renew Newcastle”.

In this scenario, the city center was revitalized by owners leasing their spaces to non-profits who in turn find short

and medium term uses of the spaces. From this the city began to be reoccupied. I like the analogy the director of the project Marcus Westbury suggest that the need is not to rework the “hardware” of the city, which is the built environment as much as the software, which is all the regulations and restraints upon a space. Architects focus too much on the physical environment and should begin leading initiatives to change policies and organize communities. If we acted more as leaders than mere servants of corporations and governments we could arm the people with the freedom to access, change and utilize the public realm.