Böcker av Neeraj Bhatia

Bracket [On Sharing] considers the historic roots of sharing and their relationship to contemporary models of sharing. Sharing is one of the humanity's most basic traits; we intrinsically recognize the benefits of pooling resources within a community in order take advantage of varied abilities and access in order to fulfill needs. The impact of sharing goes beyond simply satisfying the necessities for survival and extends itself into the social and cultural dimensions of our communities. In constructing an urban commons, composed of collectively managed and shared resources, we shape our physical, social, and cultural environments to achieve some degree of shareabilty--whether of goods, services, or experiences. These historic and evolved cultural roots ensure that sharing is inevitably part of our daily lives. Yet, its central role in how we organize and manage our cities is increasingly threatened. Within a context of increased emphasis on the individual and privatization of the commons, sharing holds much promise for re-evaluating our economic, political, and social relations to equitably distribute resources and services at the scale of both the individual and the collective.

New Investigations in Collective Form presents a group of design experiments by the design-research office THE OPEN WORKSHOP, that test how architecture can empower the diverse voices that make up the public realm and the environments in which they exist. Today, society continues to face urban challenges--from economic inequality to a progressively fragile natural environment--that, in order to be addressed, require us to come together in a moment when what we collectively value is increasingly difficult to locate. Organized into five themes for producing collectivity--Frameworks, Articulated Surfaces, the Living Archive, Re-Wiring States, and Commoning--the projects straddle the fine line between the individual and collective, informal, and formal, choice and control, impermanent and permanent.

Bracket [Takes Action] contains over 28 essays and 15 design projects that are structured into six sub-themes: ReAction, CounterAction, InterAction, FAction, InAction, and RetroAction. The intent of the fourth almanac of Bracket is to unpack the contemporary possibility of action through design.