“Download here” as a virtual performance in policy mobilities and transnational urban housing models:

the case of Elemental and incremental housing

Abstract

Transnational urban housing models, as knowledge–practice devices, facilitate the learning, mediation and translation of policy agendas, ideas and practices. Through their circulation, they frame seemingly replicable ideas as well as imaginaries about ideal uses of residential space, which often overlook the conflicts inherent in the production of space. The mobilisation of these imaginaries is mediated and facilitated through a variety of informational infrastructures, both in person and, increasingly, virtually through digital platforms. Building upon recent debates that call for attention to policy mobilities produced through digital means, this paper examines how a set of compact, shareable and comprehensible digital materials, interventions and performances produce and reproduce the learning, mediation and circulation of specific policy models. In particular, through semi-structured interviews and critical discourse analysis of secondary materials, this paper uses the case of four incremental housing prototypes developed by ELEMENTAL – an international architecture firm based in Santiago, Chile, whose director was awarded the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize – to demonstrate how expressions such as “open source”, “free to download” and “download here” constitute affective, symbolic and performative practices and resources shaping the learning, mediation and circulation of incremental housing public policies.