The rise of the Collective

A new way of understand and organize an Architectural Practice is growing amongst young Architects all over the world. A project is not anymore the result of a unique genius mind and a uni-personal point of view, but the result of a collective way of thinking, designing and working.

What are the circumstances that have led to this tendency? Is Architecture, after being lost for some time, finding a new path, a new movement? Let´s analyse the possible causes.

Blurring boundaries in Architecture

Last February 6th took place at Columbia University the first of a conference series organized by Juan Herreros, named: “Transgress: Blurring Boundaries in Architecture”, proposing for this occasion a conversation with the artist Tomás Saraceno.

The aim of this series of conversations is to explore the current boundaries of the Architecture and propose new ones, from the academic to the practice, with experiences from people no exclusively related but familiar with it.

I found the premise very compelling, and I would like to analyze the meaning of “blurring boundaries” through topics treated at the conference, but getting to a more extended view.

Architecture Critic in Twitter times

Last November 7th I attend to a lecture of the course “History of Architectural Theory”, by Mark Wigley in Columbia University (a great exercise of how to look at architectural theory books, and how to develop your own way to do it) about the Architecture Critic Reyner Banham.

At some point of the lecture, Wigley asked a question to the audience: “Have you ever thought what a guy like Banham would do with a twitter account?” question that is deeply related with the current situation of Architecture Critic, and its search of an update towards current times.

Crowdfunding Urbanism

Crowdfunding is a term applied to a collective cooperation through a network of people to get funding or other resources, often using the Internet as the mean to achieve it.

It’s been applied to different cases: new artists starting their careers, product design, private projects that contribute to a community… and even to urban planning and design.