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The Architecture of Mass Collaboration: How Open Source Commoning Will Change Everything

Gardner, Alec J
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367924079

Abstract Details

2013, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
The privatization of tools, the specialization of knowledge, and the restriction of access to technological systems have progressively removed the amateur from the design of the built environment. Today, maker culture and the open source movement offers an alternative approach. This approach invites the public into a new sphere where access to open information systems and shared, affordable, user-friendly technology renders the specialist obsolete. In doing so, these post-industrial movements transfer authority and tools to the commons, and offer a growing library of free, downloadable blueprints with an enormous supporting network of opinions, advice, and training. Technology and the Internet are quickly erasing the division between the professional and the amateur. Presently architecture fails to address this and it is ill-prepared for this confrontation. The following thesis surveys the current situation through relevant literature reviews, current technological applications, and applied analogies to other fields which are offered to better address the lack of architectural research on this subject. This thesis is grounded in the theoretical framework of the open source movement and it situates itself to answer the following questions: How can architects compete in a networked information system that allows downloadable manufacturing kits to produce open designs? How can architecture be crowd-sourced and made more open to perform for and from the commons? What lessons can be learned from other fields that have adopted an open source methodology and process for their work? What are current examples of this transition, and how can the architect be relevant in a globally networked information society? To address these questions, this thesis presents research on the early development of open source software and its rejection of hierarchical organization. It reveals its successes, its supporting legislation, and its widespread use in computer science and governmental policy. From this historical background it analyzes the advent of commons-based peer production, and explores how masses are openly collaborating to drive innovation and growth in society. It investigates how online networks are transplanting the open source ethos offline, and – through product service systems, redistribution markets and collaborative lifestyles – are transforming the consumer into an engaged participant. It tracks the beginnings of maker culture and its direct connection to DIY and vernacular lineages in architectural history. It examines how open source software has led to open source hardware further erasing digital and physical constraints. Several case studies of downloadable manufacturing tools and design platforms are presented, as well as precedents of relevant architectural methods and how they are attempting to address this cultural shift. Finally, it provides an introduction into the built studio project, the design manifestation of this research document. This thesis is, in itself, an amalgamation of existing technologies and precedents and remains a work in process, existing in order to situate itself into future negotiations of ways of doing architecture.
Michael McInturf, M.Arch (Committee Chair)
Aarati Kanekar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
82 p.
Architecture
Open Source Architecture; Crowd Sourcing; Downloadable Design; Adhocracy; DIY;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gardner, A. J. (2013). The Architecture of Mass Collaboration: How Open Source Commoning Will Change Everything [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367924079

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gardner, Alec. The Architecture of Mass Collaboration: How Open Source Commoning Will Change Everything. 2013. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367924079.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gardner, Alec. "The Architecture of Mass Collaboration: How Open Source Commoning Will Change Everything." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367924079

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1367924079
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© 2013, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The Architecture of Mass Collaboration: How Open Source Commoning Will Change Everything by Alec J Gardner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12