PKN : Hackable Infrastructures

AGENCY will present its research and design initiatives entitled “Hackable Infrastructures” at Young Architects Forum Pecha Kucha Night on Feb 6, 2010. Details on time and location to follow.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

The Romani population in Rome is a community in constant crisis. Historically a nomadic, stateless people, the population has largely settled into a semi-permanent, but tenuous relationship with Italian society. Though a large percentage holds Italian citizenship, the Roma (gypsies) are ostracized, undermined, and discriminated against by officials and citizens alike. Once voluntarily transient, the Roma now find themselves reluctantly so, displaced by forced evictions, arson, and acts of violence that have escalated in recent years. Though the average Roman citizen is far more mobile socially, economically, and physically than the average Romani, the “constant movement” of the Roma is seen as a threat to stability throughout metropolitan Rome.

PROJECT PROPOSALS:

Three project proposals envision infrastructural and architectural frameworks that enable the preservation and co-habitation of Roma and Roman culture. Providing a “hackable infrastructure” that enables both populations to adapt to the changing needs of the contemporary city, the projects redefine the role of the architect and city planner. Absolving designers of the burden to impose a uniform image of urbanity for populations that cannot fulfill its expectations, these “tactical urbanisms” proposed allow instead for multiple images of the city to emerge-where the built environment is responsive and representative of the people it serves, and the global economy of which it is a part.

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