Table of Contents
Nadia Bertolino
↳ 1. Other Worlds: towards an expanded field of architectural practice
1.1 / An introduction to “Architecture(s) of Care” research project
1.1.1 / Challenges and potentials of participatory architectural research
1.1.2 / Vanishing boundaries, unconfined identities
1.1.3 / “Care” as a design interpretive category
1.2 /Architecture(s) for alternative societies
1.3 / Value extraction and generation in the contemporary urban landscape
Ziana Namboori Madathil
↳ 2. Reflections of care in Old Hall: spatial practices and common agency
2.1 / Understanding Care
2.1.1 / Carol Gilligan’s Perspective
2.1.2 / Nel Nodding’s Perspective
2.1.3 / Joan Tronto’s Perspective
2.2 / Towards a definition of “care” in Architecture
2.3 / Eco-Communities as a testing ground
2.4 / The Old Hall
2.5 / Mapping practices of care: a participatory workshop
2.6 / Domestic, intimate, yet shared: analysing the workshop findings
Anna Lisa Pecoriello
↳ 3. Le Piagge, a community experience in the urban realm, between formality and informality
3.1 / The neighborhood: social structure and spatial setting
3.2 / Community governance model
3.3 / Interaction with institutions and the local residents
3.4 / The community’s infrastructures
3.5 / The focus group
3.5.1 / Fundamental Principles according to which the Community is structured
3.5.2 / Environmental Care
3.5.3 / Social Inclusion
3.5.4 / Economic Sustainability
3.6 / Le Piagge Community as an “Architecture of Care”
3.6.1 / Informality challenges in urban planning
3.6.2 / Le Piagge, between the value of informality and the constraints of formalization processes
Duygu Toprak
↳
4. Nurturing community: commoning and care in Güneşköy
4.1 / A primer on the new commons
4.2 / Güneşköy commons: environmental stewardship and community-supported agriculture
4.3 / Fostering community through rural-urban connections
4.4 / Caring architecture: experimenting and learning by doing
4.5 / Always a (hard) work-in-progress
4.6 / Commoning: a post-cautionary tale
Lisa Weigl
↳
5. Platforms of Radical Commoning
Community Archives – Empowering Placemaking through Inclusion
5.1 / Crossing Thresholds
5.2 / The Traditional Archive as a Metaphor for Placemaking Practices
5.3 / Community Archive: Places and Practices (futures?) of Commoning
5.4 / Collaborative Practices: Rethinking/Dismantling Placemaking Practices
5.5 / Virtual Spaces of Radical Commoning
5.6 / Conclusion
Francesca Gotti
↳ 6. Dissent and Mediation in Critical Architectural Practices
6.1 / Testing grounds
6.2 / Architecture: an anarchist approach
6.3 / Participatory Architects
6.4 / Dissident Radical Practices
6.5 / Post-Crisis Design
6.6 / In-Betweens
6.7 / Who takes care of the designer?
Other Worlds: towards an expanded field of architectural practice 1.
NADIA BERTOLINO
↳
1.1 / An introduction to “Architecture(s) of Care” research project
This book discusses the themes and findings of the research project “Architectures of Care,” a pilot initiative funded by Northumbria University Research and Innovation Services under the “Participatory Research” funding scheme. The project aims to explore the architectural significance of self-organised communities in fostering social inclusion and environmental care, emphasising the importance of an interdisciplinary approach.
To address this, the primary aim of the research project was to conduct a pilot study examining the efficacy of informal practices within three distinct eco-communities: Le Piagge in Florence, Guneskoy in Ankara, and Old Hall in Colchester. These communities serve as vital sources of architectural design inspiration, offering potential holistic solutions to contemporary challenges such as social inequalities and the climate crisis. In contrast to mainstream, commodified approaches, these eco-communities prioritise values such as integration, circularity, durability and resilience providing an alternative to exploitative modes of spatial production. The interdisciplinary lens allowed for a comprehensive exploration of these values, acknowledging the interconnectedness of social, economic and environmental factors shaping community practices.
An interdisciplinary approach drawing from fields such as architectural design, sociology, environmental studies and community development was crucial in understanding the complex and multilayered dynamics at play within these communities. In fact, these are places where human relations occur at different levels, unfolding within intricately complex spatial settings. Describing, mapping, and analysing these spaces necessitates expanding the conventional set of categories typically utilised in architectural research. Because of their inherently low-tech nature, these marginalised landscapes propose a semantic approach to defining an urban space evoking a tangible connection to the earth and the natural resources. This connection is manifested through various elements such as greenhouses, rainwater tanks, phytopurification devices, solar energy and biogas technologies, aquaponics crops, seed libraries, scarecrows, anaerobic digesters, and moss walls. Inhabitants of these communities engage in everyday practices involving growing, seeding, planting, ploughing, weeding, harvesting, composting, fermenting, cooking, and eating. These activities play a significant role in reshaping the visual representation of our urban environments. Consequently,
these places become tangible geographies that materialise the interactions between humans and non-human elements, thereby generating non-commodified landscapes.
This illustrates that collective life and agency can endure and emerge within the gaps of capitalist systems. 1 As pointed out by Fitz and Krasny, “care” within the architectural discourse is to be framed in the current cultural and professional landscape, where architecture and urban planning are heavily influenced by capital, driven by speculation and dominated by investment interests. 2 Consequently, numerous individuals find themselves unable to afford adequate housing, while austerity measures have led to significant deterioration in public infrastructure. Moreover, the looming threat of the climate crisis has left the planet vulnerable, potentially uninhabitable. In response to these pressing challenges, “Architectures of Care” presents an alternative approach within the realms of architecture and urbanism – one centred on the imperative of nurturing our communities and the planet. Anchored in a radical ethos of care that prioritizes engagement with existing conditions, this edited volume compiles a diverse array of essays. These contributions collectively document innovative ideas and practices, showcasing a spectrum of perspectives aimed at addressing the multifaceted crises we face.
1. Tsing A., The Mushroom at the End of the World: on the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Princeton University Press, 2015). In this book, Anna Tsing investigates how life – symbolised by the resilient matsutake mushroom – emerges within the degraded landscapes left by capitalist exploitation. Her main argument is that in these "ruins," where traditional economic structures fail, new forms of collaboration and interdependence can flourish. Tsing proposes a model of survival that embraces precarity and relational networks rather than control and domination, suggesting that growth often happens in unexpected, marginal spaces. This concept resonates strongly in contemporary architectural thought. Architect and theorist Keller Easterling, in "Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space", presents a similar argument: she highlights how underutilised spaces and overlooked infrastructures hold potential for innovative, adaptive responses to global issues. Both Tsing and Easterling challenge architects and urban designers to reconceptualise environments as active, responsive sites where collaboration and adaptability can turn decay into opportunity. Together, their work invites architects to consider how we might design buildings and cities that, like the matsutake mushroom, thrive within and respond creatively to the constraints of our damaged world.
2. Fitz A., Krasny E., Architekturzentrum Wien, Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet (The MIT Press, 2019).
Guneskoy (Ankara): reappropriation of the liminal space underneath the highway viaduct.
Credits: Duygu Toprak, 2023.
2.
Reflections of care in Old Hall: spatial practices and common agency
ZIANA NAMBOORI
MADATHIL
This chapter tries to understand the relationship between an eco-community and its members by analysing caring practices adopted by the community. The Old Hall is a sustainable community that incorporates care ethics as a significant aspect of its functioning. A participatory workshop conducted in Old Hall discloses the trends set by this community and how care is incorporated into their customary routine. The data collected from this workshop is investigated to analyse and understand the types of caring practices adopted by the Old Hall. It reflects on how these practices relate to the theoretical aspects interpreted by three prominent authors in this field.
↳ 2.1 / Understanding Care
Care plays a fundamental role in this research. Analysing communities through the lens of care helps to dissect the different types of caring relationships that exist and contribute towards the functioning of these social establishments. This chapter tries to identify care from various theoretical perspectives. Critically analysing care with respect to the different theories from various angles helps narrow the topic’s significance from a broader perspective to a more research-specific one.
Care is a practice both participants can experience – one that provides the caring deed and one that is the recipient of this deed. It is an empathetic approach that helps to meet needs and think beyond that. Care can be described as a way of being that makes life habitable for other people, animals and the planet. 1 A caring attitude ensures that a particular lifestyle does not exploit another person or thing. It has been defined as a ‘social practice that is essential to the maintenance and reproduction of society. 2
Caring ‘involves a subject confronting another subject and responding to his or her needs and abilities’. 3 There are times when we engage empathetically towards other people or things. At other times we take the place of a care receiver. When we take responsibility for our actions, we establish existential proof of the presence of care in our lives. Humans, animals and nature are part of a complex interdependent web. These interdependencies could either harm or nurture
1. Becca Voelcker, Care, in Architecture after Architecture - Spatial Practices in the Face of the Climate Emergency (2022).
2. Karen Struening, New family values: Liberty, equality, diversity (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
3. Daniel Engster, “Rethinking Care Theory: The Practice of Caring and the Obligation to Care”, Hypatia 20, No. 3 (2005).
Caring practices at the Old Hall.
3. Le
Piagge, a community experience in the urban realm, between formality and informality
ANNA LISA PECORIELLO
If I do not care for myself, who will care for me? and if I care only for myself, what am I? and if not now, when?
- Talmud
↳
3.1 / The neighborhood: social structure and spatial setting
Le Piagge Community is located in the deprived neighborhood of Le Piagge, in the north-western outskirts of Florence. The area is characterized by two distinct parts: one consists of a series of small historical villages along the old road to Pistoia, while the other emerged in the 1980s and is marked by the presence of large social housing blocks, commonly known as “Le Navi” due to their resemblance to big ships stranded along the banks of the Arno River. The population residing in this last part of the neighborhood is around 8000 inhabitants, who are predominantly low income, with a low level of literacy, and face high rates of unemployment. The residents come from diverse cultural backgrounds and have experienced challenging life paths. The most vulnerable part of the population includes people without citizenship rights and without a regular home, such as illegal migrants or discriminated minorities (like gypsy people). Furthermore, the land on which these housing blocks were constructed, was a floodplain area that had been used for years as sand quarries, and later, they were filled with illegal dumps. This has created a serious problem of soil pollution that has never been properly addressed by the Authorities. It took a considerable amount of time to integrate this area and its population into the city and access the various opportunities that an urban environment can offer (commercial activities, schools, public services, efficient public transport, collective equipment for sport, culture, and leisure...), and the process is still far from being concluded. 1
1. Francesca Manuelli, Le Piagge: Storia di un quartiere senza storia (L’ancora del Mediterraneo, 2007).
Le Piagge Community, a place for more-than-human interactions.
Nurturing community: commoning and care in Güneşköy
DUYGU TOPRAK
↳
4.1 / A primer on
the new commons
In the fourth age we created deserts. Our deserts were of several kinds, but they had one thing in common: nothing grew there.
- Margaret Atwood 1
In the pursuit of new models for collective life and the essential transition towards a sustainable future, the number of initiatives exploring alternatives to prevalent paradigms marked by consumerism, privatization, and individualism, is on the rise. Characterized by an ethos centered on cooperation, commitment, and community, the growing commons movement stands in stark contrast to the dominant forces of neoliberalism that propagate passive citizen-consumers and a materialistic worldview, treating nature merely as exploitable resources. Through collective oversight, governance and reproduction of shared resources, the commons movement has the opportunity «to assume a renewed role as a viable alternative to the failure of the project of the public». 2
Peter Linebaugh’s germane observation, «the town hall has gone, and the town square has become a parking lot», 3 speaks not only to the decline of the ideals associated with public space as a site of civic activity but also underscores the need to create places for gathering, debating, and fostering a new public culture. The commons, through the creation of common spaces and the forging of new socio-spatial relationships, showcases the potential for community resilience, presenting a more equitable, sustainable, and participatory vision. In the face of current and looming socioeconomic and ecological crises, the exploration of these communal dynamics and their potential implications emerges as a crucial lens through which to envision and shape our collective future.
Indeed, the concept of the commons has historical roots tracing back several centuries, acknowledged in the Magna Carta in 13th century England, which recognized the right of ordinary people to the
1. Margaret Atwood, “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet”, in I’m With the Bears: Short Stories from a Damaged Planet, ed. Mark Martin (London: Verso, 2011), 192.
2. Heidi Sohn, Stavros Kousoulas and Gerhard Bruyns, “Introduction: Commoning as Differentiated Publicness”, Footprint, No. 16 (Spring 2015): 1.
3. Peter Linebaugh, Stop, Thief!: The Commons, Enclosures, and Resistance (PM Press, 2014), 17.
The Güneşköy site.
as an inspirational prototype for rural communities, the cooperative deliberately established their initiative on impoverished soil. The overarching aim was to underscore the viability of enhancing soil quality and transforming uncultivated land into productive areas, thereby showcasing the possibilities inherent in cultivating less-thanideal arable land.
While similar initiatives for sustainable alternatives often choose the western or southern regions of Turkey, Güneşköy intentionally selected Central Anatolia to show “another agriculture is possible in Ankara”, as expressed by one of the cooperative volunteers. The phenomenon of reverse migration from urban to rural areas has given rise to a number of small ecological communities and eco-local businesses in the coastal regions of Turkey, driven by urban consumers’ growing concerns about the effects of urban life on the individual, the desire for access to healthy and organic food and a broader focus on sustainability. 31 The volunteers suggest that such alternative communities find more favorable social, political and climate conditions in these regions, compared to the rural settlements in Central Anatolia.
Put succinctly, the commons is about «the planetary future of land, water, and subsistence for all». 32 Water is at the forefront of the climate crisis, with increasing unpredictability in rainfall patterns, heightened risks of floods, and greater vulnerability to drought and desertification in arid and semi-arid regions. The challenge is compounded by the significant share of water allocated to agriculture, reaching 77 percent in Turkey, surpassing the global average of 70 percent. 33 To strategically address water scarcity, the cooperative chose drip irrigation and conducted measurements revealing that surface irrigation consumes seven times more water in the village. Members highlight the consequences of poor watershed management in the region, citing issues like excessive groundwater use through wells, common among farmers, leading to challenges such as sinkholes, salinization and aridification. They stress the urgency to tackle these issues, highlighting the risks of soil erosion, substantial land loss, and compromised water retention due to the absence of
31. Çare Olgun Çalışkan, “Türkiye Kentleşmesi”, 107.
32. Linebaugh, Stop, Thief!, 212.
33. Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Water Efficiency Strategy Document and Action Plan in the Framework of Adaptation to the Changing Climate (2023 – 2033), https:// suverimliligi.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/su-vermliligi-eylem-plani-en.pdf.
Platforms of Radical Commoning
Community Archives –Empowering Placemaking through Inclusion
LISA WEIGL
In an increasingly challenging contemporary capitalist system, where social inequalities and a pressing climate emergency are continuously evolving, an unequal distribution of services and care structures fail to cater the basic needs of communities across the globe. Paragraph 11 of the World Charter indicates that the “right to the city’’, and one can argue it applies to the right of dwelling in general, «encompasses the internationally recognized human rights to housing, social security, work, an adequate standard of living, leisure, information, organisation and free association, food and water, freedom from dispossession, participation and self-expression, health, education, culture, privacy and security, a safe and healthy environment». 1 The needs which should be fulfilled are instead often found to be met by the contrary. Whilst unsafe environments, and social inequalities are the main factors producing these struggles, they enable conscious practices of dispossession, privatisation, gentrification, segregation and exclusion of minorities, especially those related to race, colonialism, income, abilities, gender, and sexuality.
«The crisis of care has become particularly acute over the last forty years, as governments accepted neoliberal capitalism’s near-ubiquitous positioning of profit-making as the organising principle of life. It has meant systematically prioritising the interests and flows of financial capital, while ruthlessly dismantling welfare states and democratic processes and institutions». 2 A society and economy built predominantly by heterosexual, cisgender men imprints a patriarchal structure onto spaces and placemaking, excluding others not only from access to spaces but also from the process itself. The built environment should support society inhabiting it, but cities in particular «are founded on the exploitation of the many by the few. An urbanism founded on exploitation is a legacy of history». 3 An unequal distribution of space is also very much mirrored in the practice of space-making, it is visible by looking at statistics, e.g. with nearly 94% of British architects being white, despite 14% of the UK population being of black and minority ethnic background, and women making up 26% of the profession. 4 Often disguised under neoliberal policies or “placemaking’’, practices appear to be inclusive, knowing what a neighbourhood needs and creating a supposedly healthier
1. Social Forum of the Americas, World Urban Forum Barcelona, and World Social Forum, World Charter on the Right to the City, 2004.
2. The Care Collective u. a., The Care Manifesto (Verso Books, 2020), 12.
3. David Harvey, “Labor, Capital, and Class Struggle around the Built Environment in Advanced Capitalist Societies”, Politics & Society 6, No. 3 (September 1976): 314.
4. Cf. Karen Glaser, “People from Social Housing Should Build Cities”, The Guardian, 3 July 2018, sec. Education.
Deborah Edel and Mabel Hampton carry the Lesbian Herstory Archives banner during a gay pride march, 1980s. Source: Joan Nestle, ‘Don’t Stop Talking 2’ blog.
resources, including funding, staffing (often volunteer work), and technical infrastructure. These constraints can make it challenging to initiate and sustain collaborations with other communities, especially if additional resources are required to support collaborative efforts. Another reason may be a simple lack of awareness of each other’s existence or the potential benefits of collaboration. Some community structures consciously operate under the radar, due to security reasons or simply because they are limited to a very specific location. Without knowledge of other archives working towards similar goals, they may operate independently, unaware of the possibilities for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Furthermore, communities are often rooted in a specific geographic location, focusing on the histories and experiences of a particular community within that area. Geographical constraints can limit the opportunities for collaboration, especially if the archives are located in different regions or countries.
Above all else there is a lack of networks or platforms which would facilitate collaboration and sharing of knowledge. Without established avenues for communication and connection, it can be difficult for communities to initiate and sustain collaborative efforts. However, there is immense potential in lowering thresholds and fostering collaboration between different communities. By doing so, using the community archive as a global platform, marginalised groups are able to create a more expansive and inclusive network space for sharing, learning, and building solidarity across diverse aims. It enables the manifold meanings that various individuals and social groups give to places they share and create meaningful connections between places in different regions and cultures. 45 By embracing collaboration, communities can collectively challenge dominant narratives, empower one another, and contribute to a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of each other’s history and heritage.
A platform such as the community archive not only serves each community individually through collaborative efforts but also works through global antagonism and creates unities through differences. Working collaboratively within a common space, a common opposition can be found – a capitalist system based on a colonial past a neo-colonial present oppressing all communities in various ways.
45. Cf. Madrazo et al., ‘Creating a Network of Places with Participatory Actions across Cities and Cultures’, The Journal of Public Space 7, No. 3 (31. December 2022), 26.
6.
Dissent and Mediation in Critical Architectural Practices
FRANCESCA GOTTI
↳ 6.1 / Testing grounds
What can an architect do that others cannot do? What capabilities do activists and citizens possess that an architect lacks? And how do their combined efforts enable them to accomplish things that they cannot achieve individually?
In 2011, the Occupy Movement began to spread internationally as a unified wave expressing opposition to urban economic and social inequalities. Streets, parks, and squares in big metropolis were taken over by hundreds of thousand of people and turned into agorà of debate and mutual support. The Right to the City proclaimed by Lefebvre 1 seemed to have found its perfect expression in a renovated democratic appropriation of public spaces. It seemed as well that the many actors inhabiting the urban scenario had come together to question forcefully their own responsibilities, to pose radical answers, and to experiment alternative ways for living in a more equal way. The Occupy Movement offered an occasion to test tactical solutions of cohabitation and the potential contribution of professionals to the diverse practical needs made explicit during the protest. 2 During the months of the occupations, the participants have created specific layouts and codes of use for the sites, while producing spaces for encounter, conviviality, comfort, sanitation, security, education, supply. 3 This movement is the sublime, yet extemporaneous, legacy of radical historical social movements questioning the status quo, and reclaiming more equal conditions for people inside an unfair system; it acts appropriating space and media as platforms of resonance.
Moreover, the Occupy Movement offers a representation of the contemporary network of practices active globally in implementing the principles behind the movement, through collaborative projects that engage a multitude of professionals and non-professionals. On a dispersed and global scale, in fact, this spirit of trans-disciplinary collaboration, of shared management, and affordability of services is being developed through the creation of spaces of mutualism, that can acquire a variety of different forms and functions: community
1. Henry Lefebvre, The Right to the City (Anthropos, 1968).
2. Martin Reinhold, “Occupy: What Architecture Can Do”, Places Journal (MIT Press, 2011).
3. Jonathan Massey and Brett Snyder, “Occupying Wall Street: Places and Spaces of Political Action”, Places Journal (2012).
