Domus IN 201903

Photo © Hans C. Bouton

Photo © Hans C. Bouton

42

hectars of area,

including water

1987

first time squatted

1993

first eviction

1997

second time

squatted

2019

second eviction

100

inhabitants (circa)

status. Although their radical postulates

have had to accommodate more normative

approaches, the spatial heritage of the

squatting movement still offers alternatives

to neoliberal urban renewal and exploitative

policies. The survival of these communal

spaces has also allowed for the conservation

of historic structures and relevant forms of

social, cultural and political knowledge

engendered inside them that, without the

intervention and maintenance of squatters,

would have disappeared long ago. The

eviction and demolition of ADM is, therefore,

a sign of the urgent need to fight in the name

of more sensible policies in the city.

The call to recognise the spatial practices

of the squatting movement in histories

of architecture and their operational

platforms aims to stimulate a debate on how

architectural projects could mediate

between vacancy, ownership and the right

to housing. This appeal is launched by,

and despite, acknowledging the fragility

of these communities, as well as the need to

carefully limit the processes of institutional

appropriation. Yet, in celebrating and protecting

forms of spatial practice, and cultural and

political knowledge that are generally

precarious, non-author-based and often

criminalised, we are also inviting architects

to fight for, and design, the terrain for other

political possibilities. For actions that engender

a city where housing is not a commodity.

Marina Otero Verzier is a Rotterdam-based

architect and the director of research at Het

Nieuwe Instituut. Otero is part of the Artistic Team

of Manifesta 13 in Marseille. Previously, she was

the curator of “Work, Body, Leisure”, the Dutch

Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.

She teaches architecture at the RCA in London.