« Ray Anderson on the business logic of sustainability | Main | On Managing Creativity »

January 27, 2010

Cameron Sinclair on open-source architecture

Cameron Sinclair's motto is: "Design like you give a damn." He runs a architectural design firm, it's mission is to provide professional services to communities in need.

What strikes me the most isn't Cameron's passion to help people–this quality seems to be on the rise, especially in the design world, where people are more empowered to solve these types of human problems with innovative new ideas. The coolest thing about Cameron's approach is that he uses Open Source methodologies to attack the problem, by using the internet to procure design solutions, but also distribute them to localities, who take these ideas and implement them. This allows more to be accomplished with less; but more to the point, it allows local communities to participate at a highly functional level in managing their own destinies.

Thanks to the internet, Open Source is changing the world in some amazing ways. Due to the recent emergence of this new working philosophy, talented and passionate peers from around the world can collaborate simultaneously and solve big problems, which previously only companies and governments would ever have a chance to address-and in case you haven't noticed–they mostly don't.

The other thing I noticed is the distinction between architecture which is the product of an architect's "vision", who's aim is to produce a "gem", and Cameron's designs, which are produced with the community's benefit at the center of the idea–an almost inverse to how architecture is usually done. What I noticed is, this stuff looks cool despite the fact that aesthetic considerations aren't really the point. Through the process of making things that work on a basic human level, these approaches are also amazing to look at.

Posted by dsr at January 27, 2010 10:08 AM