Elective Spaces; Creating Space to Care

city as organism. new visions for urban life 22nd ISUF International Conference|22-26 september 2015 Rome Italy, 2016

2020

As cities become increasingly dense and social communities become more diverse and fragmented, Modern approaches fail to submit an elucidation, nor a valid response to the metropolitan density. The architect has a significant role in understanding the needs of social communities; he has to be sensitive to the bits and parts of the metropolis to decipher and comprehend the multitude of layers superimposed upon each other. Postmodernism has provided the architect with wider scopes to include vernacular traditions, particular wants and needs that can produce more quenching customized architecture. This research is a qualitative research with an Interpretive strategy, derived from the tradition of phenomenology, which seeks to understand the complex world from the perspective of those who lived it. A holistic analysis of Modernism where space was aesthetically constructed for a larger social project is sought for in this research. Also, it argues to prove that Postmodernism provided an ...

The ongoing discussion on the privatization of cities primarily focuses on the controlled spaces of gated communities in the outskirts just as in inner city neighborhoods. However, the physical gating of neighborhoods is increasingly being replaced by other, soft forms of inclusion and exclusion. Not being physically gated or walled has become one of the Unique Selling Points of communities designed according to the concepts of new urbanism. The production of hegemonic urban spaces in these areas is accomplished by tight regulations on the physical environment and “declarations of covenants”, stretching beyond the public governmental realm and into the control of personal lives. More subtle forms of control have evolved and have been transferred to privatized public spaces of inner city areas. The paper puts the discussion forward by extending the discursive context of soft urbanism to the strengthening strategic role of urban governments. The Historic City Center of Vienna serves as an example of converging policies set in effect by private actors and the city administration. In contrast to a privatization of the public realm, in the Historic City Center of Vienna power relations are continuously shifting towards the institutional networks of the municipality, becoming the major player, developer and investor in the production of the meaning, the narrative and the affects attached to the Historic City Center. The tightening regulations for the Historic City Center indicate a programmatic convergence between the concepts of new urbanism and regulations, enacted by the urban government. Empirical analyses, presented in the paper, reveal how power and control are increasingly exerted over residents, private entrepreneurs and private developers alike. The analysis is based on different multi-scaled approaches. The introductory section examines the accelerating deployment of regulations and control. General codes and directives are increasingly supplemented by more detailed, small-scale guidelines just as their objectives are shifting towards the production of ambience based on the thematic production of the city’s narrative. Akin to privatized urban spaces, power is exerted by the cultural reproduction of the Historic City Center, reducing the discrepancy between the imagined and the real city. The mediated translation of power is examined in the second section, critically dissecting the conceptualization of downtown redevelopment projects. Social control and control of social interaction are becoming unfolded by the continuous negotiations of the urban stakeholders. The incremental closing down of options in the public realm is supported by empirical data on the changing economic, social, cultural and institutional assets attached to the Historic City Center of Vienna. The urban functions of the city center follow the new urban form. The third section refers back to the broader conceptual framework of urban renaissance. The re-definition of the strategic function and power of the municipality in the context of urban renaissance is scrutinized in terms of power enacted by constraints of economy and globalization and raises the question of alternate solutions. References: Allen J., 2006, “Ambient Power: Berlin's Potsdamer Platz and the Seductive Logic of Public Spaces”, Urban Studies, Vol.43, No.2, 441-455 Bodenschatz, H., 2005, "Vorbild England: Urban Renaissance in Birmingham und Manchester", kunsttexte.de, No. 3/2005, 18 p. (http://www.kunsttexte.de) Fassmann H., Hatz G., Patrouch J. F., (2007), “The Historic City Today”, in Fassmann H., Hatz G., Patrouch J. F., 2007, Understanding Vienna. Pathways to the City. Münster-Hamburg-Berlin-Wien-London-Zürich, LIT Verlag Füller H., Marquardt, N., R., 2007, " Soft Urbanism: Safeguarding the private city", research network: private urban governance, Paper No. 043, 11 p. (http://www.gated-communities.de) Hatz G., 2007, “Struktur und Entwicklungstendenzen der Wiener City“ in: Kretschmer I. (ed.), Das Jubiläum der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. 150 Jahre (1856-2006, Wien, Österreichische Geographische Gesellschaft

2013

acknowledgements and introduction foreword hélène frichot immediate architectural interventions? peter kjaer questioning strong discourses: the liai alberto altés arlandis and oren lieberman immediate architectural interventions, durations and effects: 29 apparatuses, things and people in the making of the city and the world alberto altés arlandis and oren lieberman from berlin to the polar circle: a conversation with axel timm and francesco apuzzo from raumlabor karin berggren and alberto altés arlandis situated knowledge: the laboratory of immediate architectural intervention roemer van toorn sites, agencies and matters of concern alberto altés arlandis, oren lieberman and liai students against critical content: transversality and the intervention susan kelly rethinking public practices through collective pedagogies and spatial politics javier rodrigo montero at the edge of antagonism: exploring the possibilities and limits of dissensus in the laboratory of immediate architectural intervention aida sánchez de serdio art, or developing amphibians per nilsson sharing, displacing, caring: towards an ecology of contribution alberto altés arlandis contributors and image credits intravention, durations, effects immediate architectural interventions, duration and effects-alberto altés arlandis and oren lieberman

Productive Universals–Specific Situations. Critical Engagements in Art, Architecture and Urbanism, 2019

The following stage play features a fictional conversation between people of radically different cultural and social backgrounds on the question of living together in the collective high-rise housing of Paris’s banlieues. Its object is Les Espaces d’Abraxas (hereafter: Abraxas), a monumental neo-historic housing complex of about 600 apartments realized between 1978 and 1983 in the new town Marne-la-Vallée by the Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill and his office Taller de Arquitectura. Publicized as one of the first visible manifestations of postmodernism in France1 and subsequently used as a backdrop for several dystopian Hollywood movies—Brazil (1984), The Hunger Games (2015)— the associations related to this building range from a penal colony to a surreal dream. The main subject of this conversation, however, is not the building and its spectacular façade, but the transformation of collective housing during the social and political upheavals that occurred in France and other northern European countries after thirty years of welfare state provision came to an end. Apart from being a postmodern icon, Abraxas is also an exemplary case of the consequences of the debt crisis that ensued in France after the neoliberal reforms of 1977. Its accelerated decline in less than a decade resulted from the mortgage credits with which it was marketed: their flexible interest rates led to the bankruptcy of Abraxas’s housing company in 1985. On the other hand, the building complex conveys intentions of welfare state policies of social redis- tribution and was built by procedures that emerged out of the logic of Fordist production. Its eclectic pillared façade made out of prefabricated concrete panels originates in the mass housing pro- duction of the postwar boom years; and its seemingly excessive monumentality can be traced back to the ambition of the Parisian new town planners of the 1960s to structure the Paris region with modern, thriving centralities that were to fulfill not only a right to housing, but also a the “right to the city. This play confronts the memories of Abraxas’s first generation of inhabitants—which I collected in narrative biographic interviews during a six-month stay in the building in 2012—with the cultural discourse that constructed it and which permeates its social spaces. Taking the lived experience of the inhabitants as a starting point and situating the discussion inside the building changes the viewpoint from which the narrative of the demise of the social housing high- rise is usually told. The resulting polylogue of testimony and stories as well as excerpts from publications explores the emancipatory potential of discourse, which occurs at the moment when this dis- course opens up towards what, for the sake of its functioning, has to be kept outside. Torn out of context, oral statements and fragments of sentences can lose their original meaning, but their reassembly creates new relations between otherwise often incommensurable registers of speech. I have left temporal incongruencies intention- ally unresolved: discursive utterings, which extend over a time span of fifty years, remain in the present tense whereas the memories of inhabitants recalling in 2012 their experience of the 1980s and 1990s are narrated in the past tense. Finally, my own voice as an author is transmitted in the stage directions that transform Abraxas and the new town center of Mont d’Est into a stage set and thereby into a central agent of this piece. “Architecture,” then, becomes an instance that occurs in specific settings and exists only within the simultaneous entanglement of practice and representation within which it makes sense.

artsresearch.brighton.ac.uk

The theme of this paper is to consider the increasing commodification of space and the role of architecture and urban design within this schema. It will examine public space and consider where it resides and how this is shifting. It will look at the mechanisms that operate to control and recover public space and how architects' representations are bound up within this process. The paper will expand upon architectural proposals and constructions of real space. It will examine an ongoing project of 'The travelling panorama rotunda', which aims to offer a resistance and critique of these design practices, through the construction of an event space, using architectural representation. It will propose a theoretical investigation through an architectural practice. The paper will look at the work of Henri Lefebvre, and examine how public space is being capitalized. It will also consider the role played by redevelopment strategies, as defined by Neil Smith in his analysis of the processes of gentrification. The project also offers a reconsideration of the ideas of the Anarchist Architect Colin Ward and grass roots movements from the 1970s for reclaiming and occupying and how these might be reinterpreted in the contemporary context, through an 'Open school' proposal. The architectural projects that have been developed as part of this process use event architecture, drawing and other architectural representations and these will be analysed in order to project a utopian analysis of public space and the potential reclamation and occupation of public space. Reclaiming Public Space. A Critical Architecture. Space as Commodity If it is accepted that architectural representation prefigures actual built space then it is clear that not only does public space become subject to reclaiming in the ongoing privatization of space, but it is also occurring within the space of its representations. This paper will examine architectural projects and will describe a theoretical investigation through spatial practice. It is important to describe in some detail the categories of space that will form the framework for analysis. For the purpose of this analysis the term 'space' will be prioritized over time or place and might be considered through Gottdiener's discussion of Lefebvre's notion of praxis, where he argues that: "Space cannot be reduced merely to a location or to the social relations of property ownership-it represents a multiplicity of socio-material concerns. Space is a physical location, a piece of real estate, and, simultaneously an existential freedom and a mental expression. Space is both the geographical site of action and the social possibility for engaging in action. That is, on an individual level for example, it not only represents the location where events take place but also signifies the social permission to engage in these events.

Today we are familiar with definitions of architecture as an integrated, multidisciplinary “networked practice,” which takes its cognitive potential from a “diffused design intelligence.” These definitions were introduced to counter an individual, authorial approach to design which allegedly characterized modern architecture since its beginnings. This thesis aims to overcome such a distinction, showing that, on the contrary, a diffused, collective intelligence was at the core of architectural production since its invention in the 15th century. Renaissance sprezzatura, the monster in Enlightened France, Alois Riegl's Kunstwollen, Aldo Rossi's collective memory and the 1970s debate on architectural language are taken as indexes of a Western tradition of collective intelligence in design. Moreover, this genealogy shows that by embracing “collective intelligence” and “projective” practice architecture does not necessarily surrender to constituted political powers and to the forces of the market. On the contrary, this thesis shows how such a practice can be an instance of a positive and constitutive political force—in other words, able to produce the common.

Architectural Theory Review, 2011

2021

As the neoliberalization of our cities continues apace, a growing group of opponents assumes merit in the concept of ‘common space’. In common space, use and collectivity take precedence over profit and expert authorship. Whilst a growing body of scholarship construes such common spaces as pre-existing terrains to be reclaimed from capitalist command, less attention has gone to how they are raised from scratch. In order to fill this void, this study explores how common space is produced within the current conditions of urban development. In so doing, it follows the lead of a specific breed of architect: the one working at the crossroads of cultural activism and community organizing. In-depth interviewing and participatory observation allow to lay bare the possibilities and pitfalls of commoning in a variety of cities. At the Public Land Grab (London), a derelict piece of urban land was transformed into a community farm. At Pension Almonde (Rotterdam), a social housing complex became a locus for cultural production. At Montaña Verde (Antwerp), a plaza was tweaked into a co-created piece of public art. Data from collectives such as the Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (Paris), Raumlabor (Berlin) and Zuloark (Madrid) are highlighted as well. Transversally, the voyage is guided by Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space. Results are threefold. First, the distinction between Symbiotic and Oppositional Commoning is proposed, resulting in a ‘Taxonomy of Tactics’. Second, the relation between urban commoners and municipal institutions is refined by advocating agonism. Finally, Lefebvre’s lexicon is mobilized in order to explore the cross-fertilization between urban commoning and political action. Overall, this dissertation puts the human imagination at the centre of the city. It will therefore be of value to scholars, artists and activists with an interest in the creative dimension of the built environment.

Routledge , 2017

The Social (Re)Production of Architecture brings the debates of the ‘right to the city’ and the ‘production of space’ into today’s context of ecological, economic and social crises. In the emerging ‘post-capitalist’ era, this book addresses the urgent social and ecological imperatives for change and opens up questions around architecture’s engagement with new forms of organisation and practice. The book asks what (new) kinds of ‘social’ can architecture (re)produce, and what kinds of politics, values and actions are needed. The book features 24 interdisciplinary essays written by leading theorists and practitioners including social thinkers, economic theorists, architects, educators, urban curators, feminists, artists and activists from different generations and global contexts Doina Petrescu, KIm Trogal (eds) Authors : Alex Axinte Sandra Bartoli Ana Betancour Kathrin Böhm Cristi Borcan Neil Brenner Ana Džokic Katherine Gibson Nasser Golzari Rainer Hehl Gabu Heindl Mathias Heyden Rory Hyde Elke Krasny Phil Langley Helge Mooshamer Ruth Morrow Peter Mörtenböck Peter Munschler Marc Neelen Gabriela Rendón Miguel Robles-Durán Meike Schalk Tatjana Schneider Yara Sharif Apolonija Šušteršic Pelin Tan Jeanne van Heeswijk Ana Vilenica Supreeya Wungpatcharapon Graphic Design: Brave New Alpes