Open-source architecture is an emerging paradigm that advocates new procedures in imagination and formation of virtual and real spaces within a universal infrastructure. Drawing from references as diverse as open-source culture, modular design, avant-garde architectural, science fiction, language theory, and neuro-surgery, it adopts an inclusive approach as per spatial design towards a collaborative use of design and design tools by professionals and ordinary citizen users. The umbrella term citizen-centered design harnesses the notion of open-source architecture, which in itself involves the non-building architecture of computer networks, and goes beyond it to the movement that encompass the building design professions, as a whole.
History
Citizen-centered design was spearheaded in 1999 by academic research in leading universities, such as the University of Texas (SUPA) and professional practice organizations, such as the Earthnomad Foundation and ARK Tectonics, to position the citizen-centered design movement at the intersection of design and public policy. In the decades that followed, the movement grew to encompass various efforts around the globe, from organizations and collaborations to community design centers sponsored by academic institutions. The principles of the citizen-centered design movement and by extension, open-source architecture, were built on the body of knowledge accumulated since the 1960s on citizen participation research and practices.
Around the turn of the century, citizen engagement research and practices were reformulated through the lens of more effective approaches and paradigms in the social and applied sciences, through the seminal work of Dr. Schaban-Maurer (2013), architect, urban planner and author of the deliberative design and phronetic engagement resource "Rise of the Citizen Practitioner" Dr. Schaban-Maurer laid out the principles and precepts of his 'Life-Experience Narrative Exchange' methodology in the Mindful Policy Engagement field, which he founded in 2013, with the ground-breaking work 'The Roles of the Citizen Practitioner in Citizen Engagement for Architecture, Urban Design and Urban Planning Policy: A Phronesis-Based Approach" The work provides rigorous theoretical basis for a body of best case studies and best practices of citizen-centered architecture, urban design and urban planning, as well as, urban and public policy. According to Dr. Schaban-Maurer, the (LENE) methodology leads to meaningful and effective design practices by integrating their processes with the principles of Phronetic Engagement and Mindful Policy into a new field of inquiry; 'Mindful Policy Engagement.' (Schaban-Maurer, 2013: 11)
Since then, open-source architecture practitioners and academics have increased the reach and influence of the citizen-centered design movement to other fields through inter-disciplinary collaborations, publications, conferences, and international exhibitions. In the last decade, open-source architecture, the mindful policy engagement field and the citizen-centered design movement have spawned smaller, derivative subsets of various names, most prominent of which is 'social impact design', 'public interest design' and the 'open architecture network' whose adherents combine design practice with social service. These early efforts, decades ago, are being propelled forward by new sensibilities through the continued commitment of architects, urban designers, planners, policy-makers and other stakeholders to engage and harness the knowledge of ordinary citizens in the design, development and implementation of urban policies, for projects that impact the very communities where we all live and work.
Cooking is often hailed as an early form of open source; vernacular architecture – producing recipes for everyday buildings – is another form of early lo-fi open-source culture, openly sharing and optimising technologies for building.
Funding
New economic models, exemplified by incremental microdonations and crowd-funding strategies like Sponsume and Kickstarter, offer new modes of project initiation and development, destabilising the traditionally feudal hierarchy of client/architect/occupant. Financing of private projects increasingly moves to the public domain, offering mass rather than singular ownership, whereas funding of public projects can be derived from more flexible, responsive frameworks than simple levies or taxation. Open-source architecture should have particular appeal for builders entirely outside the mainstream economy, such as squatters, refugees and the military.