Makerhoods  is a project that proposes the possibility of rethinking the city as not articulated into separate specialized areas for work, live, commerce, and so on. Speculating that perhaps the imperatives of the upcoming crisis of “effective demand” in the economy will foster the possibility of different types of urban development, Makerhoods proposes that buildings are designed as large as possible.

The proposed projects, to the extent afforded by the limitations imposed by the dimensions of the site and the provisions contemplated in building regulations, attempt to leave behind the “building” size category and reach that of city fragment instead.

This strategy is predicated on new technological potential for a miniaturization of the economy, and consequently the possibility for individuals not to be forced to have to accrue vast sums of money to start new businesses. Through the help of public funds politically lubricated by the upcoming crisis of employment, and technically enabled by the economy of scale of the large size of the project, lower rents—and therefore a fighting chance—can be offered to a new generation of small-time entrepreneurs and small business owners.

The Makerhoods urban development strategy does not stop at the consideration of large scale as the only enabler of a new opportunity for the economy, but it also aspires to test and deploy qualitative innovations in urban development. Makerhoods proposes the development of mixed income residential, light-manufacturing and commercial urban fragments, contemplating that the businesses will operate both locally and online, acquiring in that way a wider clientele, and also that the apartments will be designed in such a way as to attract people of different income levels that can then enter into economical interaction and support each other.

Issues of the proper scale and architectural character of the projects, in order to foster both economic ferment and a domestic sense of belonging, are carefully considered to ensure the social success of the project. A carefully calibrated architecture mixing the economic benefits of repetitive construction to make the whole project possible, and the construction of a series of individuated places that would make them an attractive place to live, need both be considered.