Session #145

– Paper Presentations –

Drawing on the assumption that mainstream neoliberal models of architectural production amplify social inequalities and exacerbate the environmental crisis (Spencer, 2021), we see self-organised communities as non-commodified means to subvert power relations, establish networks of care and enable radical forms of social emancipation (Bollier, 2022). Such grassroots groups demonstrate an intimate awareness of the urban space and its complex relationships; they can stand opposite to globally oriented, market-driven political choices and act as symbols of communal values and localised resistance. In particualr, the panel relates to and aims to expand the reflections made within the participatory research project “Architectures of Care”, through which we explored the spatial unfolding of grassroots forms of self-organisation and cooperativism.

Within this framework, the panel seeks contributions that question if and how the architectural space, co-produced and in-habited by such communities, can become a tangible expression of intrinsic social transformations. Based on the preliminary findings of our research project, we are particularly interested in contributions that explore:

1) the material geographies of community thresholds as permeable infrastructures that pull the multitude in and- at the same time- provide a safe environ for the commons to survive and thrive. These thresholds are figure-grounds, enclosing agencies, porous delimitations to cross, avoid, overcome;

2) the production of spaces with blurred identities, that allow the individual to determine their self through the agency of appropriation and in-habitation. These are spaces for making and un-making, relating and isolating, storing and discarding; spaces that can be assembled and dismantled, that can grow and shrink as the commons varies in its nature over time.

We welcome contributions from researchers, activists, members of communities, cooperatives and artists who are willing to bring their personal narratives, in textual and visual forms, on relevant case studies. These contributions will complement and converge on our “Archive of Informality”, developed within “Architectures of Care” research project and will be considered for publication in an edited volume.