Officially, there are eight guilds within the Urban Codemakers group. There are rumours of a ninth. Of the eight official guilds, three have emerged as the most active over the past month, namely the Master Codemaker, Locative Urbanist and Crossmedia Ecologist. Their musings on our blog reveal distinctly different views on the nature of urban codemaking from each of these three guild masters.

CROSSMEDIA ECOLOGIST

The Crossmedia Ecologist takes an ecological view on urban codemaking. Seeing urban spaces as networks of forces, some social, some economic, others material or information based in their nature. It is somewhat between a traditional ‘village’ based view – letting spaces grow of their own accord – and seeing urban designers as being responsible for nurturing, rather than controlling, spaces. Making them liveable and functional.

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Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, said Santayana. And those who confuse the map with the territory are doomed to get lost, we could add. The recent news that our erstwhile friend the Locative Urbanist had attempted … Continue reading → More

MASTER CODEMAKER

The Master Codemaker takes a spatial approach to urban codemaking. Seeing the role of the urban designer to put in place codes that inform people without words: nonverbal and visual signs that control and regulate the use of space. He creates both visual codes, spatial codes and behavioural codes that are designed to work together to form a new language – this may be the ‘Third Language’ evolving from evolution’s third replicator: genes, memes, and …

After many weeks of portents, the MasterCodemaker can now reveal the identity of the One, true architect of Melbourne. For over 170 years Melbourne’s collective memory of its origins has complacently believed that Robert Hoddle, who gave his name to the eponymous “Hoddle Grid” that defines the city, was the designer of the city. Recent [...] More

The time of revelation is at hand. As foretold in the pages of the Colophon Rippley Ti, the identity of the one true architect of Melbourne will soon be revealed.  The final stages of play among the Codemaking guilds will make this revelation possible. The MasterCodemaker can once again declare that his guild continues to [...] More

LOCATIVE URBANIST

The Locative Urbanist takes a technology driven view on urban codemaking. His approach is driven by a push to remap the city via computer simulation, form-based codes and augmented reality. While this may sound cold and calculated it is motivated by a philosophy that sees urban space as having a greater flexibility when its various flows are monitored and made tangible via technology – a ‘bottom-up’ approach to codemaking in which the codes are generated via interaction between people, space, buildings and technology.

The Crossmedia Ecologist in his/her’s latest missive is quite correct.  To a point. The virus was never about the city. The city was merely a platform for it. It was about the other guilds, and their place within it. The game can run without us. The city can run without us. It was that way [...] More

Events outside of our control or augur have extended the running time of our program in the city at the same time as we have overtaken the Master Codemaker‘s score. This is an uncertain time. We had given up, running only the barest systems necessary to function, but now it appears as though our program [...] More