Enabling Systems for Open Transformations within the Existing Built Context

Abstract

The rise of the active user has prompted new imaginaries in architecture- and design culture. Although there are several examples in architectural history attempting to integrate unskilled workers within the design and execution process, some of them conditioned by times of economic hardship, this tendency doesn’t find a systematic approach in today's architectural design. By implementing this research within a series of both, past and running projects within my architectural design practise, this proposal is aiming to gain new perspectives for working within the existing built context through establishing a system, which enables the user for future changes and adaptations through its components. These concerns are explored through a consideration of the whole spectrum of a building's life to address issues such as durability, flexibility, demountability, and actual use and to create an organism-like architecture, rather than an object that will be completed after its practical completion. The project argues that the interference the blending of existing built context and the enabling system gives rise to, can unlock new possibilities for architectural production today.

Keywords: Existing Built Context, Enabling Systems, Open Design