Informational Laboratory

Plan to regenerate the Wetlands of Hangzhou
Hangzhou, China 2014

This proposal re-imagines the city as a communicative — or transparent — entity where citizens are aware of the footprint of a given service before consumption — an urban platform provides information on how things were manufactured.

Contrary to capitalism, where people are driven by consumerism and wealth is one of the biggest concerns of society, the envisioned city stimulates people towards “minsumerism,” by acknowledging the consequences that their consumption will have on the planet, and rewarding those who contribute the most.

How would human behavior transform in cities if citizens knew the processes and impacts of their interactions? How would existing cities evolve if they started developing towards this way of thinking?

"Informational Laboratory" proposes a new scenario for Architectural exploration, where the biggest challenge is to provide transparent information for citizens around the world, forecasting it's consequences on our settlements. In here the information is collected, filtered and provided to the citizens. Some possible reactions are represented with urban interventions.