Public talk by Jose Sanchez "Architecture for commons"

In a time of a proliferation of neoliberal agendas, it has become necessary to understand the forces and infrastructures that can create an opposition. “Architectures for the Commons” is the construction of a design framework that emphasizes the open source cooperation of architects with a community at large, utilizing socially enabled technology to accelerate the proliferation of value for the multitudes.
Rediscovering the commons in an age of social networks, it is possible to make a case for encouraging the production of design and value through non-exploitative digital platforms. Advocating for designing kits of parts that could be recombined in the hands of crowds offers the possibility of conceiving a perpetually novel field of design where meaning is generated spontaneously by an active social system. The advent of technologies like video games comes to reinforce the role of human intelligence that is coupled with algorithmic augmentations.
Jose Sanchez (b. 1980, Santiago) is an Architect, Programmer, Game Designer based in Los Angeles, California. He is the director of the Plethora Project, a research and learning project investing in the future of on-line open-source knowledge. He is also the creator of Block’hood, an award-winning city-building video game exploring notions of crowdsourced urbanism. He has taught and guest-lectured in several renowned institutions across the world, including the Architectural Association in London, the University of Applied Arts (Angewandte) in Vienna, ETH Zurich, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure D'Architecture in Paris. Today, he is an Assistant Professor at USC School of Architecture in Los Angeles. His research ‘Gamescapes’, explores generative interfaces in the form of video games, speculating in modes of intelligence augmentation, combinatorics and open systems as a design medium.