Some neighborhoods are around the clock non-stop, phenomena. Playing or working residents and “users” have no time to lose. Our 48h non-stop workshops harness this restless, perpetually-in-motion energy, where people become willing  to dive in a creative exercise with full intensity, in a context where they would otherwise be unable to take 4 or 5 days off of their routine.

The 48h non-stop workshop format is inspired by ‘hackers events’ such as Yahoo!’s Hack U and Open Hack where talented young programmers get access to previously unknown codes and have 48h to develop new application prototypes. It is also inspired by architecture school’s design charrettes where collaborators just push themselves to the maximum to produce a final output.

As draining as it may be, these intensive and short periods of production, often  facilitate very interesting output. They unleash a different kind of energy where the need to take quick decisions to move ahead of the project, helps cutting through to the bare essentials. While we believe that 48 hours is rarely enough to produce quality work, it is often enough to generate ideas that can be further developed later on.

Another interesting feature of the 48h workshop is that it involves experiencing a site at night as well as during the day. In some cases, the nightlife of a place is just as important (or more) as the day life. Encouraging all participants to be up at night (at least the first night) is a good way to make sure that this dimension is given equal importance.

48h workshops can also be repeated over a longer period of time. For instance on every first weekend of the month for a few months. This reduces the stress of producing output in short spurts, allowing some ideas to mature in between each workshops. Condensed moments like these 48h workshops draw from the energy unleashed by compression, which – as anyone who has worked against deadlines – knows can be pretty productive. Keep a lookout here for more announcements.