The Social Utility

Nicole Francischelli

Supervisor: Dr. John Doyle

Utility is a system or service that provides a particular function dependent on its form. A service utility caters for a single use whereby it is exclusive to itself and therefore is not utilitarian. It is a one nodded response that does not encompass the ‘greatest amount of good for the greatest numbers’. It’s infrastructure is typically disconnected and impermeable to the surrounding urban context and therefore one aims to question and challenge the value of the utility.

The notion behind utilitarianism is to promote general well being and happiness. But one’s

satisfactions are not necessarily comparable to another? There are different degrees and forms of leisure whereby our freedoms become lost due to our over regulated world. The utility conforms to a rule to maximise the service and in effect creates a social contempt which controls our happiness and leads to the disappearance of our freedom.

Leisure is a measurement of freedom, this project questions the distribution of the utilities social value.

The utility service of stormwater drains is to redirect and minimise flooding incidents which

benefits all in the area. The drain is an exclusive civic infrastructure, that currently is a direct response to its function but how can we expand on its social utility? This concrete encased ugliness is accepted visually and spatially, and is viewed as unfortunate but not tragic. How can we use the drain as an agent to allow for the emergence of new social utilities?

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