Fragment of Generative Code for Neighborhoods
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WHO DESIGNS?

Giving maximum involvement and opportunity to each family and business.

Originally written for a group of houses in Mexicali, Mexico, 1978 As a matter of policy, and as a practical desire to nurture the community and the individual, the neighborhood and its housing stock, must do the maximum possible to shape, conceive, and modify the house or business where each family lives and works, so that each one is able to be a unique and identifiable place, based on the special identity of the people who live there and work there.

The degree to which this can be accomplished will vary from project to project, but some form of it must be attempted.The following aspects of design and modification may all be possible:

  • 1. Variation of windows according to the interior layout of each dwelling.
  • 2. Variation in interior layout, according to site variations.
  • 3. Variation of interior rooms and walls according to the wishes of the tenant.
  • 4. Variation of front terrace, entrance, and front steps.
  • 5. Variation of roof dormers, attic space, balconies, small buildings sticking out into the front area.
  • 6. Very careful protection of existing trees and older buildings, so each dwelling is adapted to what was there before.
UNFOLDING ACTIONS

We recommend that from the very beginning, before construction, a clear policy of this kind is established, together with the practical and financial steps needed to make it feasible for businesses and families.

The arrangements should be open-ended enough, so that every household with their own ideas about how to achieve this kind of "possession," can be accomodated.

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