Open Collections

Sedehi, Nastaran

University of British Columbia

Most architectural discussions around the commons focus on reclaiming public or underused spaces as shared resources, often linked to ideas like the Right to the City and designing spaces for collective use. This thesis expands that conversation by introducing the concept of knowledge commons in architecture, reframing architecture not just as a physical practice but as a shared body of knowledge, including theories, methods, and tools that can serve the public, especially marginalized communities. Just as spatial commoning reclaims land, commoning architectural knowledge aims to make architectural knowledge more accessible, equitable, and useful to all. It advocates for a two-way exchange of knowledge between experts and non-experts, where both contribute to and benefit from a shared intellectual resource. In this way, knowledge becomes a commons: co-created, co-owned, and collectively used. The project is presented through three interconnected components: A poster that visualizes the concept of architectural knowledge commons and how this thesis theorizes it. A Lexicon of Commoning Architectural Knowledge, which gathers and organizes precedents where expert and non-expert communities share knowledge. This lexicon appears in this booklet and on an interactive website with links and images serving as a directory for the precedents. The website is not presented in this document. A comic book imagining a mobile app as a tool for commoning architectural knowledge. Because accessibility is central to this work, the content is communicated through clear language and multiple engaging formats—poster, booklet, comic book, and website—to explore how different media can support the practice of commoning.

Text

2025-05-15

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91148

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/