“Architecture is for the people and by the people.”
Citizen+ is an initiative by a group of students from IAAC aiming at helping poeple to shape their own environments with the use of innovative ideas and digital fabrication.These initial urban interventions revolve around District@22 and makes use of IAAC facilities,thereby dissolving IAAC into the community.The project makes a clear statement for the future of the community i.e. tailor made situations for local problems,locally produced.The students conclude by saying that if each student at Iaac takes up an intervention we could bring about a change in the society.

PROJECT

The current situation in the construction industry is disorganized and controlled by few individuals with power and money , but we as innovators should lead the industry and bring innovation directly to the user eliminating the “ middle-men ” thereby making the process more localized as well as efficient in terms of cost and time. Now , its time to give power to the people .

Innovation is not an invention. Its a new way of tackling well-known challenges. Innovation does not necessarily mean technological advancement alone , it is also ideas of dealing with social and economical challenges .

Lets take a look at few examples:

Unlike the past, today people are empowered to make and implement their own choices and not depend on a few magnates of the industrial world to make choices for them. For example giant industries like, hotels & hospitality and publishing have been sidetracked by initiatives like Air BNB, open desk , Amazon etc. they give more power back to hands of the people. Likewise the Ivy leagues universities which was restricted to a limited section of society had now made its resources available online for public and thus promoting “democratization of knowledge”.

Through our project , we bring about the same changes in the field of architecture .

Traditionally  the practise of architecture has been portrayed as commodity for the elite but it  as a humanitarian profession it should be made accessible to all . Architecture is for the people by the people .Being  a part of this innovation hub facilitated with digital fabrication  and being a citizen by virtue of contribution , we felt it was our duty to democratize the knowledge / innovation that is being generated behind these closed doors.Therefore, we went out to the streets, listened to the  needs of the people and located various weak spots that needed improvement either socially , technologically or economically.With our expertise and  engaging resources at our institution, we came up with interventions that  help to improve these weak spots and  creates bond which in turn reduces the gap between the institute and the community to which it is currently unknown.

Voice of the people plays an critical role in understanding societal needs which aids in taking informed decisions. Therefore we started out by listening to the ppl in the community . For this we developed and conducted a playful survey and learned what people like and don’t like about their neighbourhood. We found that what they like the most are open spaces while most of the dislike the fact that there aren’t many people or shops in the neighbourhood.

After our research and survey we made a database of profiles and various possible interventions some of which we have executed.

ECONOMIC INTERVENTIONS

The community expressed their concerns about the lack of shops in the “barrio” but we found many existing shops with huge investments, but under utilized due to lack of customers. So we tried to create a win-win scenario for both groups. Here is one such example.

SOCIAL INTERVENTIONS

Remember the community said they Love neighbourhood but dislikes the fact there aren’t many people… well we tried to take advantage of urban voids and transform them into active spaces for the community  and knit the people together.

TECHNOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS

Technology has become an inevitable part of people’s lives , hence it is important to educate them about the new developments and their effects especially in the field of production/manufacture. In the past industrial era mass production of a prototype was the “way-to-go” which brought in problems of its own like shipping and transportation, unnecessary waste generation due to overproduction or rather under consumption of incompatible designs etc. Today, we have the technology to design and fabricate precisely to and for our needs, locally. To convey this message to laymen we went into private spaces with the prototypes developed using such technologies at our institute making them a part of the third Industrial Revolution and giving power into their hands . Thereby eliminating physical and virtual barriers and granting access to everyone .

FUTURE SCENARIO

Citizen + introduces a new model society that is driven by transparency. It is an open society where individuals have easy public access to anything and are confronted with personal decisions.

We have initiated this process through this user friendly website, where the students of IAAC as well as the people of the community can upload profile of their ideas and campaign for crowdfunding to execute them with the use of digital fabrication technologies. This concept could be practiced in our very institute where every year  around 150 students come with their expertization and varied cultural background . So , just imagine  if every student  executes an project then the result is overwhelming .

150 interventions being executed  in a span of a year just by ONE institute .

If this idea is accepted and multiplied then the result would be unimaginable : AN REVOLUTION

Its time to PAY IT FORWARD …..

If  in the future this practice is widened to a global level  it will Empower the people .

We will have a society  driven by transparency, therefore becoming an open society where individuals are confronted with personal decisions and are allowed free easy public access.

WE ARE THE CITIZENS OF THE WORLD AND WHAT MAKES US A CITIZEN IS OUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNITY .COME JOIN US AND CONTRIBUTE .

Here is an link to the final presentation :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqKzojKMJ3A&feature=youtu.be

Barcelona has undergone tremendous changes in past few decades in becoming world’s most admired city for urban development. Leveraging on 1992 Olympics it transformed from a neglected industrial city to vibrant hub for business, logistics and tourism. By 2001, the city was ranked as the Europe’s sixth most attractive city for international business investment and was 3rd by 2012. The economy however, has benefitted much from its attractiveness as the 4th best urban tourism destination in Europe. With an inflow of 7.8 million tourist and 2.3 billion Euros, the tourism industry has both positive and negative influence on the city and its inhabitants.

As from our research we found that the city has now geared up towards becoming a capital of knowledge and innovation by attracting talent from around the globe. With 12 universities, 169 research centers, 30 innovation support etc. there is a lot of innovation happening within the city. But does all this reach or benefit the citizens? Our own institute(IAAC) which thrives on innovation and brings 120 students from around the world is much like a bubble in the city without any interaction at the neighborhood level.

Innovation is of the essence to progress and Interaction is KEY to innovation. The Ajuntament de Barcelona, realized this and took measures to improve and increase the interactions between the international community and the local firms and institutions in Barcelona which resulted in 22@District or the Innovation District. But any innovative strategy ,device, technology or service is meaningless unless it leads to the betterment of the society or community it is based in.

Our project therefore attempts to bring innovators from different walks of life irrespective of their nationality together to interact, innovate and find solutions to existing/foreseen problems. Barcelona today, with its multi-cultural society, myriad tourists, international student and research community has a vast pool of skills, experience and knowledge at any point of time. This potential needs to be tapped.

To make any “outsider” interested in the progress of the city he/she should identify oneself with the city of Barcelona. Our study thus lead us to re-define “citizen” as a person who has some contribution towards progress of the city. Thus making all those who do any productive work (which includes temporary residents like international researchers/ students/ entrepreneurs etc) a citizen of Barcelona. But what about tourist? The locals often look at them as nuisance but they too have skills and expertise in one field or the other. What if we could tap these skill too and ameliorate this situation for the locals?

Our proposal is to define spaces where all this potential can be tapped through interaction with the local community as well as research & innovation facilities in a way that is directly beneficial to the local community and thus reduce the friction between permanent and temporary occupants of this city.

” Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

-Steve Jobs

Investigation on tourism led us to a group of people who are a “hybrid” and did not complete fit into the tourist category. These people are from outside Barcelona, but much like citizens, they too have made Barcelona their (temporary) home; living and working or learning in the city.

Therefore we conducted a study on a similar international community in the city ie; the IAAC community. The study had two parts.
The first part consisted of a self study of the daily activities of our group members, and each activity  was put into two groups that is one done by citizen or a tourist based on its nature. The second one was an analysis of the movement of the IAAC community where GPS tracks were collected and visualizations were made using grasshopper. It was carried out with voluntary participation of our fellow colleagues. The data was recorded on mobile device app  . From the analyzes the type of mobility of the user can be detected .   From the data we can analyze the nodes of maximum , minimum movement and their path .  Most of them would pass by touristic zone , but it was just a transition point .

The activities was filmed for a day from 8am to 10pm. The blue indicates the citizen level  and orange the tourist level. The study indicates that we are indeed citizens.

Innovation is meaningless unless it leads to the betterment of the society or community it is based in. But if one represents the traditional process of innovation as a Pyramid, there the is a huge gap between innovators  (at the top) and the end users (at the  bottom). For innovation to actually get to the users it has to filter through many layers of industries. But industries themselves are disorganized and controlled by few individuals with power and money. As innovators and architects we have the opportunity to align these industries towards a common goal of progress. We must make efforts to reduce the gap between innovators and users so that there is a positive interaction between them which will undoubtedly result  in better solutions for end users and in turn creates  a profitable market for the innovators. Therefore we must take innovation straight to the neighborhood level, from there to the city level and then to the global level. Our project initiates this new process of innovation in the neighborhoods of @22 district Barcelona which is known as the innovation district of Spain.

Our proposal is a system of a linked urban acupuncture. It consists of 3 levels of intervention . These are : the main hub , community hub and the pods .

A detailed study on District 22 led to the locations of interventions.

Iaac was chosen as the location for the main hub as it is located centrally in the district and offers the ideal environment for innovation to take place.

Community hub 1 is located the selected are as it is a place where diverse activities such as professional, commercial and leisure are taking place on a daily basis . It is also easily accessible from Diagonal .

The second site  is located in the center of a residential area and with this we want to involve the inhabitants in the innovation program.

The third one is situated in Parc del Poblenou adjacent to the beach and sport facilities this way attracting all groups of people including tourists .

The pods are strategically positioned in public spaces selected according to the density of people.

The following images represent the logic behind the approach to our proposal and not necessarily the actual physical space.

The main hub’s objective is to create an ideal environment to foster innovation . The built structure is conceived as  a transparent mesh which would grow over the existing industrial building  to accommodate the new activities . 

Aimed at providing a platform for local interaction where people of all ages could come together and exchange, develop and implement ideas. Temporary exhibition spaces , start up spaces (offices), shops , lounge , media access point , skill development classes , media access .
A digital window on local life, nAutreville offers visitors and local residents the opportunity to superimpose the digital city over the physical city creating a heightened vision of the surrounding environment

Aimed at providing information to the public about the various activities being held at the main hub and community level. It is strategically located in public spaces at different junctures across the city so as to give media access to everyone including tourists.
It sets out to create a new digital service for urban areas, combining both the real and the virtual city – this can disseminate information and facilitate the sharing of systems between people, in public. The beauty of this innovative system is the potential to create individual local networks, tailored to the users’ needs and personal interests.
nAutreville functions as an interactive sign which can centralise neighbourhood information (town hall, school, street map, services, history of the city, etc.).