Sharing

SHARING:

COMMUNISM, COHOUSING AND COUCHSURFING Initial research into three social units differing in magnitude, historical context and region but all centred around sharing. J. Szczepanska

01 Communism Communism is a political and economic doctrine that aims for a classless society structured upon communal ownership of the means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories ) and the end of wage labour and private property. For much of the 20th century, in fact, about one-third of the world’s population lived under communist regimes. These regimes were characterized by the rule of a single party that tolerated no opposition and little dissent.

Leading contributers:

The Communist Manifesto

The major players

An introduction

The men behind the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels were both Prussian born philosophers, social theorists and sociologists who moved to England. Although both were both well-educated, they were both no strangers to poverty. Karl Marx had seven children but due to poverty only three survived to adulthood. Engels collaborated on a range of documents including Das Kapital.

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In relation to housing, at the age of 64 Engels published The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State which suggests that monogamous marriage, came from the necessity within class society for men to control women to ensure their own children would inherit their property. He argued a future communist society would allow people to make decisions about their relationships free from economic constraints.

In 1848 two men, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, were commissioned by the Communist league in Germany to formulate a draft document to represent the workers movement. The resulting Communist Manifesto was first published in the German language, in London on February 21st 1848 and continues to be one of the world’s most significant publications.

It is the document which has influenced and proliferated communist movement globally.

The document itself has about 18,000 words which analytically address the past and theoretical future of the working class under communism. It discusses the class struggle within society and outlines many of the problems in Capitalist system.

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Communist Poland:

The Communist Manifesto

The reality

10 Point Program

In practice the housing policy of Polish communist regimes was more pragmatic than the Soviet model. State housing policy disregarded supply and demand in favor of administrative space allocation norms, standardized design and construction practices, and central rent control. The rents were maintained at a very low level to ensure that housing was available to even the poorest citizens. However, all the control by the State made construction and approval a very slow process.

01 Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

02 A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

03 Abolition of all right of inheritance.

Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

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05 Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

By 1988 Poland ranked last in Europe in housing with only 284 dwellings per 1,000 persons; 30 percent of Polish families did not have their own housing accommodations. 1 1 Housing, U.S. Library of Congress http://countrystudies.us/poland/37.htm

04 Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

06 Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

07 Equal liability of all to labour...

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Fast facts

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The Logo.

The hammer and sickle are two symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them together symbolises the unity between industrial and agricultural workers. This emblem was conceived during the Bolshevik Revolution.

01 Karl marx 02 Fredrich Engels 03 Moscow Olympic Village/ Soviet Architecture Example 04 Queues in Poland waiting for bread 05 Expansion of Communism (dark to light)

08 Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

09 Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.

10 Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form.

Combination of education with industrial production

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George Orwell’s Animal Farm is based on the preStalin communist period before WWII. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

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The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property

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Karl Marx

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Constructivism was a strong art movement often associated with Soviet art and design during the early 19th century. A prime example of this it Tatlins’ Monument to the third International.

02 Co housing A cohousing community is a type of intentional community composed of private homes, supplemented by extensive common facilities. A cohousing community is planned, owned and managed by the residents, groups of people who want more interaction with their neighbours. Common facilities vary but usually include a large kitchen and dining room where residents can take turns cooking for the community. Other facilities may include a laundry, pool, child care facilities, offices, internet access, guest rooms, game room, TV room, tool room or a gym.

Leading contributers:

The major players The modern theory of cohousing originated in Denmark in the 1960s among groups of families who were dissatisfied with existing housing and communities that they felt did not meet their needs. Bodil Graae wrote a newspaper article titled Children Should Have One Hundred Parents, this led to a group of 50 families organising a community project in 1967. This group developed the cohousing project Sættedammen, which is the oldest known modern cohousing community in the world. Another key organizer was Jan Gudmand Høyer who drew inspiration from his architectural studies at Harvard and interaction with experimental U.S. communities of the era. He published the article The Missing Link between Utopia and the Dated Single Family House in 1968, creating a second group.

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The Cohousing Movement

The whole big idea Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing in which residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own neighbourhoods.

Cohousing residents are consciously committed to living as a community.

The physical design encourages both social contact and individual space.

Private homes contain all the features of conventional homes, but residents also have access to extensive common facilities and a common house.

01 Cohousing’ Ålborg Denmark 02 Sættedammen Project Denmark 03 Images from Thomas More’s Utopia 04 Samenhuizen in Gent, Belgium 05 Same as above 06 Communal space in Dejerbunken Cohousing 07 Working Architecture Group, Cohousing cluster, England

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Literature

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Originally called bofællesskaber, cohousing recieved its English name from Kathryn McCamant & Charles Durrett who were both Architects who met and discovered the movement at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. They are credited with writing CoHousing: A Contemporary Approach To Housing Ourselves and Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living.

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Initial kibbutz’s and Intentional communities drew from certain aspects that are found in the literature of Thomas More’s Utopia. Thomas More’s imaginary island called Utopia was an extreme criticism of the times. There was ever present poverty and hunger. Utopia solved this by eliminating money and instituting universal food rations based on what you needed.

Today’s communities seem to be centralized around children and community, this can be found in the attention to their architecture, community layout, and community involvement, however there is a growing amount of senior cohousing villages starting up. See image above.

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6 Characteristics of Cohousing:

A living environment where doors don’t need to be locked, where significant relationships with neighbours are the norm rather than the exception, where generations mix and everyone has a role, where people experiment with commitment to something more than their individual interests ... in short, intentional community.

01 Participatory process. Future residents participate in the design of the community so that it meets their needs 02 Neighborhood design. The physical layout and orientation of the buildings encourage a sense of community.

03 Common facilities.

Common facilities are designed for daily use, are an integral part of the community, and are always supplemental to the private residences.

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Mazo, 1992

04 Resident management. Residents manage their own cohousing communities, and also perform much of the work required to maintain the property.

05 Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making. Leadership roles naturally exist in cohousing communities, however no one person (or persons) has authority over others.

06 No shared community economy. The community is not a source of income for its members.

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03 Couchsurfing CouchSurfing is a non-profit organization dedicated to making it more accessible for all people to explore the world and share inspiring experiences. Based on a social networking platform, couchsurfing allows its members to find, correspond and meet other members with the intention of finding free accommodation worldwide. As of the 29th of September there are 2,225,361 Couchsurfers, with the top countries being the U.S, Gernany, France, U.K and Canada.

Leading contributers:

The Launch of Couchsurfing:

The major players

The whole big idea

The CouchSurfing project was originally conceived by Casey Fenton in 1999.

According to Fenton’s own account, the idea arose after finding an inexpensive flight from Boston to Iceland. Rather than stay at a hostel, Fenton randomly e-mailed 1,500 students from the University of Iceland asking if he could stay. Fenton ultimately received more than 50 offers of accommodation. On the return flight to Boston, he began to develop the ideas that would underpin the CouchSurfing project.

The site was launched with the cooperation of Dan Hoffer, Sebastien Le Tuan, and Leonardo Silveira as a beta in January, 2003. The project became a public website in January 2004. Initial growth of the site was slow. By the end of 2004 the site had just over 6,000 members. In 2005, growth accelerated and by the end of the year, membership stood at just under 45,000.

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Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time

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CS Motto

Creation of Collective:

Couchsurfing 2.0 In June of 2006, the project experienced a number of computer problems resulting in much of the database being irrevocably lost.

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A CouchSurfing Collective in Montreal was emerged as a result and they committed to fully recreating the original site, with users to 01 and 02 Couches on offer re-enter their profile data. “CouchSurfing 2.0” 03 Couchsurfing homepage was announced early in July of 2006.

04 Couchsurfing map of availability, location of couches 05 Ages of couchsurfers Since then the membership has grown 06 Gender of couchsurfers exponentially and is the basis for a new type 07 Languages spoken of travelling hospitality. Image left.

08 My couchsurf contacts

Fast facts

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With over 2.2 million members in 237 countries and territories.

CouchSurfing is the most visited hospitality service on the Internet, averaging around 60 million daily page views in July-September 2010.

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Europe has the highest amount of couchsurfers, currently they account for 51.4%1 of all couchsurfers.

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1,145,068 CS’ers

Who is Couchsurfing?

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42.2% Female

7% Couples or groups

50.1% Male

Couchsurfing Goals CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it’s about making connections worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives.

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Ages 80 to 89 Ages 70 to 79 Ages 60 to 69

We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!

Ages 50 to 59 Ages 40 to 49 Ages 35 to 39 Ages 30 to 34 Ages 25 to 29 Ages 18 to 24 05

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Couchsurfing English French

Eindhoven, NL

Spanish German Italian Portuguese Chinese (Mandarin) Russian Dutch Polish 07

Although not all my couchsurfing experiences have been great, I have had a bit of contact through couchsurfing while I’ve been in Eindhoven. Its been a really nice way to get to know new people and Eindhoven. My first surfer Dhiradj was loevly enought to give me a bike tour of Eindhoven (his home town) after he came to visit for a PSV game. Couchsurfers here are using the system to start up events like games nights and other gatherings creating small but strong communities.

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