FORUM 'DWELLING IN THE COMMONS'

With Levan Asabashvili, L'atelier d'architecture autogérée, Co-Habitation Strategies, Anna Dijkhuis (with architect Flip Krabbendam), Janna Graham (with Åbäke) and Nazima Kadir
21 November 2010, 14.00–18.00
De Kersentuin (Co-housing residence) Atalantahof 11, Utrecht*

De Kersentuin

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This FORUM gathers a group of practitioners from different disciplines—architecture, art, activism, academia and social organisation—who work in the context of neighbourhoods or shared space to discuss forms and meanings of ‘communal living’ in our time. Critical consideration of policies that promote private home ownership and so-called ‘social cohesion’ inform the current nature of the debate.

The point of departure for the forum is the contemporary movement of co-housing in the Netherlands, which will be introduced by Anna Dijkhuis, member of FGW (The Dutch Federation of Intentional Communities/Federatie Gemeenschappelijk Wonen, in Dutch). The number of cohousing and intentional living groups in the Netherlands has grown to 10,000 across the country since the 1960s. These communities are often self-organised, with residents negotiating their multiple desires with regards to their needs for privacy and commitment to co-operative ideals. What kind of radical democratic potentials do these models offer? In what ways do participatory processes affect the architectural design process and vice versa? How do these communities differ from the communes of 1960s and common-interest developments such as gated communities?

Squatted housing has a well-known history in the Netherlands where co-habitants develop informal ways of occupying and sharing buildings. The collective aspect of this living practice also operates with political principles, although in varying degrees. Squatting has recently reached a critical turn with the new Dutch law banning the practice as of October 2010. Although the level of execution of this law is still ambiguous, it is timely to address what this means for the ‘co-living’ strategies of these D.I.Y.-oriented individuals and communities.

What is common in both examples, as well as the contexts of the invited participants, is that the place of ‘home’ or ‘community’ is the physical and conceptual site where social and economic forms of living are inscribed, exercised and negotiated within political paradigms. From this framework we ask this group of diverse participants to discuss the context of working with their particular neighbourhoods and communities, and how they might operate towards a notion of a ‘commons’. We will also explore ways in which alternative concepts and forms of dwelling can move beyond their semi-insular structures and extend to the level of street, town and the city.

Forum venue

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FORUM SCHEDULE

Part 1: Building spaces

14.00 Intro
14.05 Anna Dijkhuis? with architect Flip Krabbendam on the history of Co-housing in the Netherlands in relation to social and architectural design
14.30 CoHabitation Strategies?/Phillip Luehl & Guillermo Delgado on the Tarwewijk project in relation to collaborative living
14.55 aaa/Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu on R-Urban–a strategy for local resilience in the greater metropolitan Paris in relation to the ways architects can contribute to the initiation of self-managed social, economic and ecological projects.
15.20 Discussion
16.00 Break

Part 2: Communal dynamics

16.30 Intro
16.35 Levan Asabashvili?/Urban Reactor on three main types of Tbilisi collective housing from Early period (1917-1930s), Stalin's period (1930s-1950s) and after Stalin (1950s-1991).
16:55 Nazima Kadir? will present a cartography of internal power dynamics within the intimate space of squatted houses.
17.15 Janna Graham with Patrick Lacey? of Åbäke on the Seniors Skills Exchange project in Edgware Road neighbourhood, London.
17.40 Discussion & conclusions

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'The Grand Domestic Revolution GOES ON' is a midway manifestation of 'User's Manual: The Grand Domestic Revolution' (GDR), Casco's long term 'living research' project developed in partnership with Utrecht Manifest: Biennial for Social Design.

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