CLAUDIA MOREIRA

Creating Aleatori Outcomes. How Can the Citizen Be an Activator in Open Processes?

Rafael Gomez-Moriana The analogy of the open-source in computer software programming, as a metaphor for the urban development, forms the basis for this thesis. Just like the gamer or programmer, the individual can take on the role of user-creator through the open ended processes in the urban territory by adding on to his environment.

The approach to the design discipline, architecture / urbanism / landscape, as a multilayered complexity reveals the necessity to position the individual as a central player in the experience of space. The contemporary urbanity is literally a playing field for the individual; through the instant city processes it becomes a feeding ground. The tools for activation lay within the inherent emergent condition, the motivation for a self participatory and a “just do it” attitude of the community or the individual. The reality of this newly gained, urban freedom makes us to question the positioning of the architect within this context. Just like the individual, the thesis argues that the architect must take an inside and “hand on approach” towards the endless possibilities.