urbanismo P2P

There are many strands of peer to peer urbanism, but I believe three main ones, and they are interconnected and should possibly from one synthetic movement in the future. 

The first is the urban connectivity movement, which aims to assist the autonomy of individuals and social groups through the use of digital technologies, let’s call it the digital cities trend. 

The second one is the trend towards sustainability and urban resilience, which we could call the eco-cities movement. The second can tremendously benefit from the new neighborhood sharing initiatives that are being born, and the fact that social media and lower transaction cost are enabling all kinds of product service systems that lower the footprint of human activity by substantially re-socializing infrastructures. 

Finally, the P2P Foundation itself is closest to a participatory planning movement, called bio-urbanist architecture, which combines participation with the rediscovery of biophilic patterns for human living, as exemplified by the work of Christopher Alexander and followers of this pattern language like Nikos Salingaros. It’s aim is to reclaim our cities to recreate them from the bottom-up through community engagement, instead of through centralized planning or pure neoliberal market mechanisms. What distinguishes bio-urbanism is that it claims that there is concrete scientific knowledge, i.e. the biophilic patterns, which can inform a responsible choice.

Fragmento de una entrevista a Michel Bauwens