Spectra is a cross-platform, open-source community where physical placemakers and virtual worldbuilders come together to create sustainable, human-centered, and technologically progressive urbanization. Spectra’s toolkit and participatory process are designed to support projects from single villages to broader networks up to a city of 1M+ people. The goal of the growing community of placemakers, architects, engineers, urbanists, virtual creators, and activists is to build cities and villages which are sustainable, livable, and affordable.
The core tenant of Spectra Cities is to allow communities to form and participate in the design of their neighborhood before it is build. Each member becomes a stakeholder as well as a stockholder with deep interests and incentives to create a healthy new district.
The core of Spectra Cities is the Spectra Block. Each block comprizes of four medium scale corner buildings and six inline buildings. The ground floor, the interior courtyard and the block corners can all be reconfigured and redesigned by the block community.
The building blocks of Spectra are available for anyone to use. Community members have been using them to experiment with development ideas for infills, brand new lands, and art projects.
The Spectra blocks are desined to produce cities optimized for pedestrians where heavy transportation and infrastructure are delegated to underground levels. Above ground, despite the regularity of a Barcelona-like grid, a rich range of private and public space create a dense and diverse network of human-oriented activity zones.
Read more about Spectra Cities and the project initiated by the Spectra community here. Credits for the four rendering are due to Play Time. All other images, including drawings, 3D models and simulations, and architectural and graphic design, were produced by NUMENA.
