Category for city-related pages, urbanism, architectural trends.

Introduction

Gonzalo Jose Lopez [1]:

"In computer science, the term “peer-to-peer” refers to a network formed by a series of nodes that behave as equal to each other, acting both as clients and servers for the other network nodes, allowing direct exchange of information.

This is a theoretical movement, emerged from informal settlements and self-constructed architecture, considering these processes as beneficial for the evolution of the urban environment and returning to the user the participation and the decision making power that was lost.

It tries to accommodate the different practices that are currently appearing in the urban discipline, some of which I have spoken here before, as the tactical urbanism, the spontaneous city or crowdfunding, among others.

All of them based on a horizontal urbanism, bottom-up projects, with the common feature of requiring the commitment and participation of citizens involved in the process."

Characteristics:

"In Urbanism, the application of this term has led to a movement that draws on the principles of open source and is defined in 5 points:

1. The human being has the right to choose the built environment in which to live.

2. All citizens should have access to information regarding their environment in order to engage in processes of decision making.

3. Users should participate in all levels of co-design and construction of their city.

4. P2P Urbanism practitioners are committed to spreading knowledge about open source technologies and theories.

5. The owners of the built environment should be able to implement the development of knowledge, skills and practices on it."

Worthy of Support

The P2P Foundation supports efforts towards Peer-to-Peer Urbanism and Commons-based Urbanism, (i.e. Komunal or common land approaches).

We also particularly appreciate the P2P-Urbanism approach taken by Nikos Salingaros, Gruppo Salingaros and other bio-urbanist friends.

Policies for a Shareable City: Shareable Magazine's 20-part series on policies that foster resource sharing, co-production, and mutual aid in cities [2]

Sharing Cities and Regions

1. Homegrown Minneapolis Commons-Based Food Policy Blueprint ; Neighborhood Revitalization Program - Minneapolis
2. Naples' Italy: Assessor of the Commons
3. Open Commons Region Linz
4. San Francisco Sharing Economy Working Group

Key Resources

• World Map of City Civic Organisations

Key Articles

• First, a word of caution: David Harvey on the Fetishism of the Local and Horizontal

1. Peer-to-Peer Themes and Urban Priorities for the Self-organizing Society. By Nikos A. Salingaros. University of Texas at San Antonio. A contribution from April 26, 2010.
2. A Brief History of P2P-Urbanism. Great intro by Nikos A. Salingaros & Federico Mena-Quintero
3. Pulska Grupa: P2P Urbanism: From Exclusion to Autonomy‎
4. Design for a Post-Neoliberal City. Jesko Fezer. e-flux journal 17, 06/2016. [3] "From being strategic sites for the implementation of neoliberal policy, cities may possibly become a new political arena for experiments in democracy—and thus require a new design.
5. Adaptive Architecture, Collaborative Design, and the Evolution of Community: Text by Eric Hunting, on the future of a p2p-based 'Adaptive Architecture'.
6. David Barrie: Towards Open Source Place-Making
7. Codes and the Architecture of Life. By Michael Mehaffy
8. Jason F. Mclennan. The Urban Agriculture Revolution. Bringing Food into Living Cities. http://www.urbanfarmhub.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/urban-agriculture-revolution.pdf]: An important and sensible overview of why this is happening.
9. The Radical Technology of Christopher Alexander. By Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros. Introduction to the Pattern Language work inspiring the P2P urbanistic community.

• More on the bio-urbanistic work of Nikos A. Salingaros (and Michael Mehaffy), in an ongoing series in Metropolis magazine:

1. Øyvind Holmstad's introduction
2. Series accessible via http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/author/nikos
3. The Radical Technology of Christopher Alexander
4. The Sustainable Technology of Christopher Alexander
5. The Pattern Technology of Christopher Alexander
6. The Living Technology of Christopher Alexander
7. The “Wholeness-Generating” Technology of Christopher Alexander

• How-To:

1. How to Start a Housing Co-op (U.S.)

Key Blogs and Websites

• The P2P Urbanism pages of the International Society of BioUrbanism, at http://www.biourbanism.org/p2p-urbanism/

• Peer to Peer Urbanism blog at http://p2purbanism.blogspot.com/

Key Books

• Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future. Matt Hern. AK Press, 2009. [4]: If we want to preserve what's still left of the natural world, we need to stop using so much of it. And cities are the best chance we have left for a sustainable future ... but only if they remain vibrant, dynamic spaces that are unfolded by millions of people working together—and not by master plans and planners. What will it take to make our cities truly sustainable?

Key Tags

1. http://del.icio/mbauwens/P2P-Urbanism
2. http://del.icio/mbauwens/P2P-Architecture
3. http://del.icio/mbauwens/P2P-Neighborhoods
4. http://del.icio/mbauwens/P2P-Cities

Key Projects

• Policies for a Shareable City: the series initiated by Neal Gorenflo of Shareable magazine will cover 20 policy areas to inspire discussion among citizens and city leaders.
• City-Based Food Commons (the Homegrown Minneapolis Commons-Based Food Policy Blueprint)

Open Source Building and Housing Projects

Updated list via [5]:

1. Auram CEB Block System] developed at Auroville India: This is the most advanced CEB block system in existence. Sort-of open in that they claim the technology is offered free to the world to use, but don't publish exact plans for anything
2. Backcountry Boiler - kickstarter supported long tail manufacturing of an ultralight outdoor kettle
3. Contraptor: aiming to create an open-design construction set,
4. DIY Magic Mirror - An Arduino, open source based interactive Magic Mirror with home automation and Halloween features.
5. Fragment Store]: modular self-combined fragments of design furniture
6. Freebus - an Open Source Home Automation System
7. Good Stove, open source stove for the poor
8. Grid Beam Building System, reuseable parts for building
9. Hexayurt, an open source disaster relief shelter
10. Ikea Hacker Do it yourself blog on the base of corporate products
11. Liberator, aka "Open Farm Tech's Liberator Compressed Earth Block machine; [6]
12. Makerbeam
13. MIT House-n 'chassis' system
14. Movisi Open Design Furniture
15. [http://wiki.openhardware.org/Catalog:One_Day_Chair One Day Chair: Chair design for a CNC cutter
16. Open Architecture Network
17. Open Remote, an Open Domotics community
18. Open Sailing: modular marine architecture
19. Open Source Construction Systems
20. Open Source Geopolymer Cast Stone Construction; eopolymer House blog [7]
21. Open Source Cooling: KippKitts is designing open-source low-voltage (24V), high-efficiency (@2A) DC cooling units (air-conditioner/cpu cooler/refigeration) [8]
22. Open Source House: 2 project; most recent is here
23. Open Source Induction Furnace Project
24. Open Source Washing Machine OSWASH
25. Open Straw is an Open Source Prefab Strawbale House that can be built for $7k [9]
26. WikiHouse: fabricated from locally sourced plywood cut on a CNC mill from openly shared template files, and assembled with minimal skill by local people.

Key Videos

• Interview with Stefano Serafini on P2P Urbanism‎