CCC - CREATIVE CYBER COMMUNITY

Studio Shajay Bhooshan

Tutors Ariadna Lopez, Andy Watts

Team Jonatan Zisser, Yufan Xiao and Tianyun Li

The project proposes the urban transformation of the Hackney Wick neighbourhood, situated in East London. The city is undergoing constant processes of transformation, with more neighbourhoods from the city centre to the outskirts becoming more expensive. Thus, there is a constant migration of low-income population that is displaced and forced to move further out of the city centre. The Borough of Hackney is an area where most of London's artists are concentrated. Within a span of 15-20 years, the entire borough has undergone an intense process of gentrification: real estate prices have risen, the average salary has increased and the average spending on culture constantly grows. Next in line for urban transformation, are Hackney Wick and Fish Island. The opportunity for Hackney Wick lies in learning from the neighbouring study cases (Shoreditch, Dalston, Hackney Central). How can urban gentrification take place by keeping the original residents?

To answer this question, the project explores the use of cyber physical game mechanism in three-dimensional space. Hackney residents could walk in their virtual neighbourhood, sharing their creation to the public. Everything that artists and artisans have to offer can be sold on the virtual space as non-fungible tokens. The cyber physical community members will design their own private virtual space according to their specific needs. Thus, the entire neighbourhood will become a collective three-dimensional, ever transforming creation apparatus, in which each artist can turn their virtual personal space into the exhibition space of their own work. Artist will then be able to share, edit, customise, collaborate, merge virtual spaces together, sell and negotiate their work and their spaces through this virtual platform.

Once a user reaches the necessary amount of community currency, they can realise their virtual space design. A digital production farm will be placed in the heart of the neighbourhood to manufacture these spaces out of timber and export them back to their original locations. Due to its flexibility and reversibility, timber enables a plethora of design choices and accommodates any changes to the new production of spaces, while keeping low impact on the environment.

The vision of CCC – Creative Cyber Community is a cycle of constant cybernetic creation of physical spatial production; a self-evaluating space making apparatus. All this, to ensure a better, resilient, and more sustainable contemporary urban growth.