Spatial Practices
THEORETICAL ORIENTATION: SPACE IS ALWAYS POLITICAL
Defining the Political: Politics is not merely governance but the social activity where diversity and conflict are negotiated through total collective decisions. It is the interaction of equal citizens 'acting in concert' for conflict resolution (Arendt).
The Spatial Turn: Initiated in the 1970s, this theoretical shift moved space from being a passive backdrop for time to a force intimately linked to lived experience.
Henri Lefebvre's Conceptual Triad:
Perceived Space (Physical): Material, concrete reality.
Conceived Space (Mental): Geometric, abstract models used by planners and technocrats.
Lived Space (Social): Space processed and modified over time through human use and interaction.
Production of Space: Space is a social product; it is both the stake of political conflict and the instrument used to wage it. The 'Right to the City' is a call for self-management and participation against top-down technocratic impositions.
Dissensus: Jacques Rancière defines the political as a condition of rupture or change ('dissensus') that reorders the senses and reorganizes social interaction.
Spatial Multiplicity: Doreen Massey argues space should be viewed as a 'simultaneity of stories-so-far'—an interconnected system of relationships that are always under construction.
SECTION I: SPATIAL PRACTICES OF RESISTANCE
Protest as Spatial Practice:
Protest manifests in proximity to spaces of power to test ideas among like-minded individuals.
Kettling and Control: Modern public spaces are increasingly 'privately owned public spaces' (POPS) where management companies restrict behaviors (skateboarding, filming, political activity).
Divergent Ideologies: Neoliberalism decouples 'the public' from democracy, connecting it instead to consumption and surveillance.
The Athenian Commons:
Following the 2008 riots, new movements in Athens reclaimed space from state/market control.
Commons as Public: Differs from 'community' (which can be exclusionary). A public common is purposefully instituted common ground for strangers with diverging lives to negotiate.
Navarinou Park: A parking lot occupied in 2009 and turned into a self-managed green space. It functions as a 'horizontal' assembly where decisions are binding for all users.
Community Activism in London neighbourhoods:
Deptford: The Discovery Team (1994) pushed for regeneration without destruction, emphasizing local stewardship.
Peckham Vision: A volunteer-led team mobilized thousands to save historical assets (Bussey Building) from demolition for a tram depot.
Somers Town: Opposed the 'Community Investment Programme' (CIP) where public land was sold to developers to fund flamboyant facilities, arguing for community-generated models instead.
Support Community Design Building Service (1976–1992):
Led by Hugo Hinsley, this cooperative challenged the RIBA’s partnership laws to provide 'Technical Aid' to squatters and housing co-ops.
Legacy: Established the first Community Technical Aid Centres (CTACs) and the Women's Design Service.
Tactical Spatial Practices: Oscar Brito analyzes the 'Big Society' and Localism Act (2011) as neoliberal attempts to shunt state costs onto volunteers, though they created gaps for Community Land Trusts (e.g., Granby Four Streets) to reclaim derelict Victorian terraces.
SECTION II: SPATIAL PRACTICES OF INTERVENTION
Canning Town Caravanserai: A 'meanwhile' project on a Newham site designed by Ash Sakula. It used a two-gate typology from the Silk Road to create a hostelry for conviviality, scavenging materials from local businesses.
Of Soil and Water: King’s Cross Pond Club: A natural swimming pond purified by plants rather than chemicals. It limited visitors to per day based on the plants' filtering capacity. It catalized a community petition of over signatures to preserve it as a permanent asset.
Jeanne van Heeswijk: Training for the Not-Yet:
Radicalizing the Local: A process of de-abstracting neoliberal policy to make it tangible.
Philadelphia Assembled: Organized the city into five 'atmospheres' (Sovereignty, Reconstructions, Movement, Sanctuary, Futures) to build a solidarity economy.
Walking as Practice: AiR (Anna Hart and Tilly Fowler) used 'The King’s Cross Walking Club' to gather embodied knowledge, countering the delirious assertions of rapid urban regeneration.
Glastonbury: Instant City: A paradigm for large-scale participatory settlements. While the infrastructure is skeletal (tents/trackway), the governance is actualized by over volunteers from partner charities (Oxfam, Greenpeace).
Narrative Environments: Tricia Austin argues that spatial narratives are stories embedded in physical forms. Critical narrative environments (e.g., Julie Howell’s 'Nowhere to Be Seen') use lighting and storytelling to address elderly social isolation on housing estates.
Aberrant Architecture: David Chambers and Kevin Haley use 'carnivalesque' structures (The Tiny Travelling Theatre) to provoke interactions. Their 'Civic Stage' in Swansea honors local history (copper currency) through surface embellishments designed by community groups.
SECTION III: STRATEGY, DISRUPTION, AND CRITIQUE
Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman: Working at the San Diego-Tijuana border, they promote 'Cross-Border Community Stations'. They argue that human rights need tooth and local comprehension (Public Pedagogy) rather than just being legal abstractions.
Double Agency (muf Architecture/Art): Liza Fior describes working for the person paying (e.g., a developer) while simultaneously working for the people using the space (the public). This involves 'wedging a door open' for those not in the brief.
Design for Organizing (Hector): Damon Rich and Jae Shin reject push-button solutions for 'radical democracy' where conflict is negotiated in public. They use dioramas and social reality maps to help residents rebuilding Mifflin Square Park.
Pedagogical Transformations:
Jeremy Till: Critiques the 'conservative avant-garde' in education. He calls for an 'Ethic of Solidarity' to replace the asymmetric power of the unit system.
Andreas Lang: Proposes 'Situated Learning' where students are producers. Tools like 'Situated Drawing' (micro-activist performances on site) bridge the gap between academic abstraction and urban reality.
Public Practice: A social enterprise (founded by Finn Williams and Pooja Agrawal) that places architects into local authorities. It aims to restore the public sector’s capacity to lead development from within, rather than outsourcing control.
Socializing Practice (The Architecture Lobby): Proposes cooperative models for small firms to survive capitalist competition. Four levels of transition are proposed:
Shared Administration: Individual firms jointly 'consume' accountants/lawyers.
Shared Resources: Firms pool knowledge/personnel to act as large entities.
Full Cooperativization: Worker-owned firms where each member has one vote.
Municipal Cooperatives: Design firms catalyzing wider community economies (e.g., Mondragon or Emilia Romagna models).