Architecture for the people by the people
-
0:01 - 0:04When we use the word "architect" or "designer,"
-
0:04 - 0:07what we usually mean is a professional,
-
0:07 - 0:09someone who gets paid,
-
0:09 - 0:12and we tend to assume that it's those professionals
-
0:12 - 0:14who are going to be the ones to help us solve
-
0:14 - 0:17the really big, systemic design challenges that we face
-
0:17 - 0:21like climate change, urbanization and social inequality.
-
0:21 - 0:24That's our kind of working presumption.
-
0:24 - 0:27And I think it's wrong, actually.
-
0:27 - 0:30In 2008, I was just about to graduate from architecture school
-
0:30 - 0:33after several years, and go out and get a job,
-
0:33 - 0:36and this happened.
-
0:36 - 0:38The economy ran out of jobs.
-
0:38 - 0:40And a couple of things struck me about this.
-
0:40 - 0:44One, don't listen to career advisers.
-
0:44 - 0:49And two, actually this is a fascinating paradox for architecture,
-
0:49 - 0:53which is that, as a society, we've never needed design thinking more,
-
0:53 - 0:57and yet architecture was literally becoming unemployed.
-
0:57 - 1:00It strikes me that we talk very deeply about design,
-
1:00 - 1:03but actually there's an economics behind architecture
-
1:03 - 1:05that we don't talk about, and I think we need to.
-
1:05 - 1:09And a good place to start is your own paycheck.
-
1:09 - 1:11So, as a bottom-of-the-rung architecture graduate,
-
1:11 - 1:14I might expect to earn about 24,000 pounds.
-
1:14 - 1:18That's about 36,000, 37,000 dollars.
-
1:18 - 1:19Now in terms of the whole world's population,
-
1:19 - 1:24that already puts me in the top 1.95 richest people,
-
1:24 - 1:28which raises the question of, who is it I'm working for?
-
1:28 - 1:31The uncomfortable fact is that
-
1:31 - 1:34actually almost everything that we call architecture today
-
1:34 - 1:36is actually the business of designing
-
1:36 - 1:39for about the richest one percent of the world's population,
-
1:39 - 1:41and it always has been.
-
1:41 - 1:43The reason why we forgot that
-
1:43 - 1:45is because the times in history when architecture
-
1:45 - 1:48did the most to transform society were those times
-
1:48 - 1:51when, actually, the one percent would build
-
1:51 - 1:54on behalf of the 99 percent, for various different reasons,
-
1:54 - 1:56whether that was through philanthropy in the 19th century,
-
1:56 - 1:58communism in the early 20th,
-
1:58 - 2:01the welfare state, and most recently, of course,
-
2:01 - 2:05through this inflated real estate bubble.
-
2:05 - 2:08And all of those booms, in their own various ways,
-
2:08 - 2:10have now kicked the bucket,
-
2:10 - 2:13and we're back in this situation
-
2:13 - 2:18where the smartest designers and architects in the world
-
2:18 - 2:21are only really able to work for one percent of the population.
-
2:21 - 2:23Now it's not just that that's bad for democracy,
-
2:23 - 2:25though I think it probably is,
-
2:25 - 2:28it's actually not a very clever business strategy, actually.
-
2:28 - 2:31I think the challenge facing the next generation of architects
-
2:31 - 2:33is, how are we going to turn our client
-
2:33 - 2:37from the one percent to the 100 percent?
-
2:37 - 2:40And I want to offer three slightly counterintuitive ideas
-
2:40 - 2:42for how it might be done.
-
2:42 - 2:46The first is, I think we need to question this idea
-
2:46 - 2:48that architecture is about making buildings.
-
2:48 - 2:51Actually, a building is about the most expensive solution
-
2:51 - 2:54you can think of to almost any given problem.
-
2:54 - 2:56And fundamentally, design should be much, much more interested
-
2:56 - 2:59in solving problems and creating new conditions.
-
2:59 - 3:00So here's a story.
-
3:00 - 3:02The office was working with a school,
-
3:02 - 3:05and they had an old Victorian school building.
-
3:05 - 3:07And they said to the architects, "Look,
-
3:07 - 3:09our corridors are an absolute nightmare.
-
3:09 - 3:12They're far too small. They get congested between classes.
-
3:12 - 3:14There's bullying. We can't control them.
-
3:14 - 3:17So what we want you to do is re-plan our entire building,
-
3:17 - 3:19and we know it's going to cost several million pounds,
-
3:19 - 3:21but we're reconciled to the fact."
-
3:21 - 3:24And the team thought about this, and they went away,
-
3:24 - 3:26and they said, "Actually, don't do that.
-
3:26 - 3:28Instead, get rid of the school bell.
-
3:28 - 3:31And instead of having one school bell that goes off once,
-
3:31 - 3:33have several smaller school bells that go off
-
3:33 - 3:36in different places and different times,
-
3:36 - 3:38distribute the traffic through the corridors."
-
3:38 - 3:39It solves the same problem,
-
3:39 - 3:42but instead of spending several million pounds,
-
3:42 - 3:44you spend several hundred pounds.
-
3:44 - 3:47Now, it looks like you're doing yourself out of a job,
-
3:47 - 3:50but you're not. You're actually making yourself more useful.
-
3:50 - 3:51Architects are actually really, really good
-
3:51 - 3:54at this kind of resourceful, strategic thinking.
-
3:54 - 3:55And the problem is that, like a lot of design professions,
-
3:55 - 3:58we got fixated on the idea of providing
-
3:58 - 4:00a particular kind of consumer product,
-
4:00 - 4:02and I don't think that needs to be the case anymore.
-
4:02 - 4:07The second idea worth questioning is this 20th-century thing
-
4:07 - 4:10that mass architecture is about big --
-
4:10 - 4:12big buildings and big finance.
-
4:12 - 4:15Actually, we've got ourselves locked into this
-
4:15 - 4:17Industrial Era mindset which says that
-
4:17 - 4:20the only people who can make cities are large organizations
-
4:20 - 4:23or corporations who build on our behalf,
-
4:23 - 4:25procuring whole neighborhoods
-
4:25 - 4:28in single, monolithic projects, and of course,
-
4:28 - 4:30form follows finance.
-
4:30 - 4:33So what you end up with are single, monolithic neighborhoods
-
4:33 - 4:37based on this kind of one-size-fits-all model.
-
4:37 - 4:40And a lot of people can't even afford them.
-
4:40 - 4:43But what if, actually, it's possible now for cities
-
4:43 - 4:45to be made not just by the few with a lot
-
4:45 - 4:49but also by the many with a bit?
-
4:49 - 4:50And when they do, they bring with them
-
4:50 - 4:53a completely different set of values about the place that they want to live.
-
4:53 - 4:55And it raises really interesting questions about,
-
4:55 - 4:59how will we plan cities? How will finance development?
-
4:59 - 5:00How will we sell design services?
-
5:00 - 5:03What would it mean for democratic societies
-
5:03 - 5:05to offer their citizens a right to build?
-
5:05 - 5:07And in a way it should be kind of obvious, right,
-
5:07 - 5:13that in the 21st century, maybe cities can be developed by citizens.
-
5:13 - 5:16And thirdly, we need to remember that,
-
5:16 - 5:18from a strictly economic point of view,
-
5:18 - 5:23design shares a category with sex and care of the elderly --
-
5:23 - 5:26mostly it's done by amateurs.
-
5:26 - 5:27And that's a good thing.
-
5:27 - 5:31Most of the work takes place outside of the monetary economy
-
5:31 - 5:33in what's called the social economy or the core economy,
-
5:33 - 5:35which is people doing it for themselves.
-
5:35 - 5:39And the problem is that, up until now,
-
5:39 - 5:40it was the monetary economy which had
-
5:40 - 5:43all the infrastructure and all the tools.
-
5:43 - 5:44So the challenge we face is, how are we going
-
5:44 - 5:48to build the tools, the infrastructure and the institutions
-
5:48 - 5:49for architecture's social economy?
-
5:49 - 5:52And that began with open-source software.
-
5:52 - 5:55And over the last few years, it's been moving
-
5:55 - 5:57into the physical world with open-source hardware,
-
5:57 - 5:59which are freely shared blueprints
-
5:59 - 6:03that anyone can download and make for themselves.
-
6:03 - 6:06And that's where 3D printing gets really, really interesting.
-
6:06 - 6:09Right? When suddenly you had a 3D printer
-
6:09 - 6:11that was open-source, the parts for which
-
6:11 - 6:13could be made on another 3D printer.
-
6:13 - 6:16Or the same idea here, which is for a CNC machine,
-
6:16 - 6:21which is like a large printer that can cut sheets of plywood.
-
6:21 - 6:24What these technologies are doing is radically
-
6:24 - 6:27lowering the thresholds of time and cost and skill.
-
6:27 - 6:28They're challenging the idea that
-
6:28 - 6:32if you want something to be affordable it's got to be one-size-fits-all.
-
6:32 - 6:34And they're distributing massively
-
6:34 - 6:37really complex manufacturing capabilities.
-
6:37 - 6:41We're moving into this future where the factory is everywhere,
-
6:41 - 6:43and increasingly that means
-
6:43 - 6:46that the design team is everyone.
-
6:46 - 6:48That really is an industrial revolution.
-
6:48 - 6:52And when we think that the major ideological conflicts
-
6:52 - 6:54that we inherited were all based around this question
-
6:54 - 6:56of who should control the means of production,
-
6:56 - 6:58and these technologies are coming back with a solution:
-
6:58 - 7:02actually, maybe no one. All of us.
-
7:02 - 7:04And we were fascinated by
-
7:04 - 7:07what that might mean for architecture.
-
7:07 - 7:10So about a year and a half ago,
-
7:10 - 7:11we started working on a project called WikiHouse,
-
7:11 - 7:15and WikiHouse is an open-source construction system.
-
7:15 - 7:18And the idea is to make it possible for anyone
-
7:18 - 7:20to go online, access a freely shared library
-
7:20 - 7:24of 3D models which they can download and adapt in,
-
7:24 - 7:28at the moment, SketchUp, because it's free, and it's easy to use,
-
7:28 - 7:30and almost at the click of a switch
-
7:30 - 7:33they can generate a set of cutting files
-
7:33 - 7:35which allow them, in effect,
-
7:35 - 7:38to print out the parts from a house using a CNC machine
-
7:38 - 7:41and a standard sheet material like plywood.
-
7:41 - 7:44And the parts are all numbered,
-
7:44 - 7:49and basically what you end up with is a really big IKEA kit.
-
7:49 - 7:51(Laughter)
-
7:51 - 7:53And it goes together without any bolts.
-
7:53 - 7:55It uses wedge and peg connections.
-
7:55 - 7:57And even the mallets to make it
-
7:57 - 8:00can be provided on the cutting sheets as well.
-
8:00 - 8:02And a team of about two or three people,
-
8:02 - 8:04working together, can build this.
-
8:04 - 8:07They don't need any traditional construction skills.
-
8:07 - 8:10They don't need a huge array of power tools or anything like that,
-
8:10 - 8:13and they can build a small house of about this size
-
8:13 - 8:17in about a day.
-
8:17 - 8:25(Applause)
-
8:25 - 8:28And what you end up with is just the basic chassis of a house
-
8:28 - 8:30onto which you can then apply systems like windows
-
8:30 - 8:32and cladding and insulation and services
-
8:32 - 8:35based on what's cheap and what's available.
-
8:35 - 8:37Of course, the house is never finished.
-
8:37 - 8:40We're shifting our heads here, so the house is not a finished product.
-
8:40 - 8:43With the CNC machine, you can make new parts for it
-
8:43 - 8:47over its life or even use it to make the house next door.
-
8:47 - 8:50So we can begin to see the seed of a completely open-source,
-
8:50 - 8:55citizen-led urban development model, potentially.
-
8:55 - 8:58And we and others have built a few prototypes around the world now,
-
8:58 - 9:00and some really interesting lessons here.
-
9:00 - 9:03One of them is that it's always incredibly sociable.
-
9:03 - 9:07People get confused between construction work and having fun.
-
9:07 - 9:10But the principles of openness go right down
-
9:10 - 9:13into the really mundane, physical details.
-
9:13 - 9:16Like, never designing a piece that can't be lifted up.
-
9:16 - 9:17Or, when you're designing a piece,
-
9:17 - 9:20make sure you either can't put it in the wrong way round,
-
9:20 - 9:23or, if you do, it doesn't matter, because it's symmetrical.
-
9:23 - 9:27Probably the principal which runs deepest with us
-
9:27 - 9:30is the principal set out by Linus Torvalds,
-
9:30 - 9:33the open-source pioneer,
-
9:33 - 9:36which was that idea of, "Be lazy like a fox."
-
9:36 - 9:38Don't reinvent the wheel every time.
-
9:38 - 9:41Take what already works, and adapt it for your own needs.
-
9:41 - 9:44Contrary to almost everything that you might get taught
-
9:44 - 9:48at an architecture school, copying is good.
-
9:48 - 9:50Which is appropriate, because actually,
-
9:50 - 9:52this approach is not innovative.
-
9:52 - 9:54It's actually how we built buildings
-
9:54 - 9:56for hundreds of years before the Industrial Revolution
-
9:56 - 9:58in these sorts of community barn-raisings.
-
9:58 - 10:01The only difference between traditional
-
10:01 - 10:03vernacular architecture and open-source architecture
-
10:03 - 10:05might be a web connection,
-
10:05 - 10:08but it's a really, really big difference.
-
10:08 - 10:09We shared the whole of WikiHouse
-
10:09 - 10:11under a Creative Commons license,
-
10:11 - 10:13and now what's just beginning to happen
-
10:13 - 10:15is that groups around the world are beginning to take it
-
10:15 - 10:17and use it and hack it and tinker with it, and it's amazing.
-
10:17 - 10:20There's a cool group over in Christchurch in New Zealand
-
10:20 - 10:23looking at post-earthquake development housing,
-
10:23 - 10:27and thanks to the TED city Prize,
-
10:27 - 10:29we're working with an awesome group in one of Rio's favelas
-
10:29 - 10:32to set up a kind of community factory
-
10:32 - 10:34and micro-university.
-
10:34 - 10:36These are very, very small beginnings,
-
10:36 - 10:39and actually there's more people in the last week
-
10:39 - 10:41who have got in touch and they're not even on this map.
-
10:41 - 10:45I hope next time you see it, you won't even be able to see the map.
-
10:45 - 10:49We're aware that WikiHouse is a very, very small answer,
-
10:49 - 10:53but it's a small answer to a really, really big question,
-
10:53 - 10:56which is that globally, right now, the fastest-growing cities
-
10:56 - 10:59are not skyscraper cities.
-
10:59 - 11:03They're self-made cities in one form or another.
-
11:03 - 11:06If we're talking about the 21st-century city,
-
11:06 - 11:09these are the guys who are going to be making it.
-
11:09 - 11:13You know, like it or not, welcome to the world's biggest design team.
-
11:13 - 11:15So if we're serious about problems
-
11:15 - 11:20like climate change, urbanization and health,
-
11:20 - 11:24actually, our existing development models aren't going to do it.
-
11:24 - 11:26As I think Robert Neuwirth said, there isn't a bank
-
11:26 - 11:28or a corporation or a government or an NGO
-
11:28 - 11:30who's going to be able to do it
-
11:30 - 11:33if we treat citizens only as consumers.
-
11:33 - 11:37How extraordinary would it be, though, if collectively
-
11:37 - 11:40we were to develop solutions not just to the problem
-
11:40 - 11:42of structure that we've been working on,
-
11:42 - 11:47but to infrastructure problems like solar-powered air conditioning,
-
11:47 - 11:49off-grid energy, off-grid sanitation --
-
11:49 - 11:53low-cost, open-source, high-performance solutions
-
11:53 - 11:55that anyone can very, very easily make,
-
11:55 - 11:57and to put them all into a commons
-
11:57 - 12:02where they're owned by everyone and they're accessible by everyone?
-
12:02 - 12:06A kind of Wikipedia for stuff?
-
12:06 - 12:08And once something's in the commons,
-
12:08 - 12:09it will always be there.
-
12:09 - 12:13How much would that change the rules?
-
12:13 - 12:16And I think the technology's on our side.
-
12:16 - 12:20If design's great project in the 20th century
-
12:20 - 12:24was the democratization of consumption --
-
12:24 - 12:30that was Henry Ford, Levittown, Coca-Cola, IKEA —
-
12:30 - 12:34I think design's great project in the 21st century
-
12:34 - 12:36is the democratization of production.
-
12:36 - 12:39And when it comes to architecture in cities,
-
12:39 - 12:41that really matters.
-
12:41 - 12:43Thank you very much.
-
12:43 - 12:48(Applause)
- Title:
- Architecture for the people by the people
- Speaker:
- Alastair Parvin
- Description:
-
Architect Alastair Parvin presents a simple but provocative idea: what if, instead of architects creating buildings for those who can afford to commission them, regular citizens could design and build their own houses? The concept is at the heart of Wikihouse, an open source construction kit that means just about anyone can build a house, anywhere.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:11
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Architecture for the people by the people | ||
Emma Gon commented on English subtitles for Architecture for the people by the people | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Architecture for the people by the people | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Architecture for the people by the people | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Architecture for the people by the people | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Architecture for the people by the people | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |