Alt.Cmd — Project Update

We’ve been a little quiet of late, but we have an excuse. We’ve been busy figuring out how to get going with the full list of ideas that came out of our first meet ups. Things like decarbonising a whole street, or taking over Camden with a sci-fi festival…in augmented reality.

Ok so it’s not an excuse, but it is time for an update.

Using the early principles we came up with here (down at the bottom) we whittled down to four ideas, which we’re calling experiments. The aim is to test how a new way of working as an ‘institution’, with direct input and oversight from citizens, can trial new technology, service, business models, or even regulations, for a digital age. Each experiment will be in service of building a more just and inclusive future.

1 — Rooftop Planning
A prototype for data driven planning permission for rooftop housing. A type of automated ‘permitted development’ to test ways of verifying site information, building condition and construction. (eg. based on satellite imagery, or photo uploads).

One of the biggest problems Camden faces, both right now and in the future, is housing. It. Is. Expensive. Part of how we fix this will be figuring out how we make it (a lot) easier for citizens to procure and build their own homes; developing the new digital services, pre and on-site fabrication, as well as the rapid information and knowledge sharing that makes this possible. A lot of this work has already started to happen, yet what we’re short of are places to test these new models of planning and construction. Camden, of all the London boroughs, has one of the highest number of roofs that can be built on — by one estimate that could be up to 2,485 potential new homes (more than double the current annual housing targets for the borough). This experiment aims to deal with the potential number of applications and admin all those small sites would create, without overloading the council. On top of that we also need to make sure that once they’re built, those extra homes remain actually affordable. That means encouraging extensions and extra homes, without fuelling more expensive rental properties or the airbnb market. It means testing out more cooperative and community ownership models from the start, and making it lot easier and faster to set those up.

Projects we’re looking at: Plan_x, Demo Dev, Skyroom
Things we’re reading/listening to: Rethinking the Economics of Land & Housing,

2 — Decarbonise My Street
A new model of crowdfunding for a collective, local transition to low-carbon energy and efficiency projects, one street at a time.

Everybody agree’s we need to change the way we live, and what our cities look like in the face of climate breakdown. But beyond top-down, centralised decision making — how do we actually do that? What if we imagine a citizens budgeting model where people could suggest ideas for things like climate transition at the scale of their street. Where citizens could discuss, vote for, and be part of projects they want to see happen on their doorsteps. For those who’ve been watching the BBC’s brilliant War on Plastic, it shows that we’re much more likely to stick to lifestyle changes when we commit to them together rather than if we go it alone. So this experiment aims to take the idea of a business improvement district, and add a new dimension for citizens — a citizens improvement district. This could be part public, part private, and part crowd funded — and add a new dimension to participatory budgeting projects. Bringing local, accountable and (literally) visible changes to your street and at a neighbourhood scale.

Projects we’re looking at: Brixton Solar Project, Incredible Edible (Todmorden), Homebaked (Liverpool).
Things we’re reading/listening to: Online Participatory Budgeting (Iceland), Extinction Rebellion: What’s Next? (Polarised, RSA).

3 — Noise Pollution: A prototype for p2p governance
A digital service for temporary events, managed through your phone — eg. for a music venue, a one-off gig or a pop-up theatre performance.

From loud music to shouting in the street — at first talking about noise seems pretty trivial, or at least something you should just expect when living in central London. But dig a little deeper and it becomes a far more complex problem. Noise, like other forms of pollution, often reflects huge fractures in equity and social justice across the city. Unfair disparities that often have their source in how policy and regulations play out in a city’s complex and diverse neighbourhoods. Where this becomes important for Camden is in deciding how its night time economy can evolve and grow, and how long term regeneration can be better negotiated between the council, residents and local business. Quite often the only point at which we get a say is either during early consultation, or at the point we need to complain. This is unfair for everyone. Residents complain that they don’t get a say, businesses and venues face more restrictions and bigger penalties if they don’t comply, and the council spend more time and money trying to mediate between the two. This experiment aims to test what adaptive, context based regulation could look like— a prototype for p2p feedback and governance. If we get this right, it could completely change how we think about policy making and regulations in the city, and be adapted for other types of problems like air pollution, and transport.

Projects we’re looking at: Commons Impact
Things we’re reading/listening to: Gov as a Platform: A Value Proposition (Pia Andrews), Decibel.Live’s blog

4 — A Smart Covenant
Testing a new funding model for community projects and local infrastructure like parks, micro energy grids, or even schools.

How we invest in building new parts of our neighbourhoods is broken. The more money we put into things like new public space, shops or housing, the more property prices rise, and the more people who live there struggle to afford it. Imagine if there was a more fair and democratic way for us to come together to coordinate the investment, ownership and maintenance of our common infrastructure, and fund it through the rising property prices it could generate. The aim of this experiment is to see how new digital services (like digital property deeds) could change the process of how we redevelop our neighbourhoods, and make them more affordable, community-led and cooperatively owned. This is by far the most ambitious of the four ideas, but one that we think could reinvent the current way we design and build our cities — remoulding them to be fundamentally more inclusive.
Projects we’re looking at: HM Land Registry’s Digital Street, Doma.city, Affordable Land
Things we’re reading/listening to: Matterum’s white paper, The Beauty Premium: How Urban Beauty Affects Cities’ Economic Growth (City Lab)

This is by no means an exclusive or exhaustive list, but we reckon these ideas give us a good chance to test what alt.camden can do, how it does it, and how it can be useful. If you are working in or around any of the ideas above and would like to get involved— let us know.

Stay tuned for updates which we’ll be posting and writing about — Otherwise you can find us working hard here.