The book ‘Open Source Architecture’ is a visionary manifesto for the architecture of tomorrow that argues for a paradigm shift from architecture as a means of supporting the ego-fueled grand visions of &lstarchitects&r to a collaborative, inclusive, network-driven process inspired by twenty-first-century trends such as crowd-sourcing, open access, and mass customization.
The question is how collaborative design can avoid becoming design-by-committee. Authors Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel navigate this topic nimbly in chapters such as &lWhy It Did Not Work&r and &lLearning from the Network.&r They also meet the essential requirement of any manifesto, considering the applications of open-source architecture not only conceptually but also in practice, in chapters such as &lOpen Source Gets Physical&r and &lBuilding Harmonies.&r Open Source Architecture is an important new work on the frontlines of architectural thought and practice.
