Emergency Commons by Maritina Koutsoukou

EMERGENCY COMMONS TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

M AR I T I N A KO U T S O U KO U | 20 1 4

The complexity of the property regime and the legal framework, and the way this is applied to architecture indicates that the problem is not just urban, but profoundly legal and architectural.

FIGURE 01

The complexity of the property regime and the legal framework, and the way this is applied to architecture indicates that the problem is not just urban, but profoundly legal and architectural.

the common or commonwealth, is based on the definition of the term by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Apart from elements of the material world like the air, the water, the soil etc., as common are also considered â&#x20AC;&#x153;those results of social production that are necessary for social interaction and further production, such as knowledges, languages, codes, information, affects and EMERGENCY COMMONS

The complexity of the property regime and the legal framework, and the way this is applied to architecture indicates that the problem is not just urban, but profoundly legal and architectural. Athens came to be an entity produced by the accumulation of independent and separate housing units, and as a result became inhabited by owners of apartments, and not by citizens whose presence and expression in public space is collective. The current condition of the city, as it is described in the previous chapters, is considered as an opportunity for an alternative proposal to this fragmentation, which characterizes the current property regime. Therefore, within the context of the project, the architectural elementsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;shops, stoas, courtyards, apartments-which have been affected by this crisis of the construction system and have been produced based on the concept of private property and individuality, can be reversed and can become the field to question what are the commons in the city. The understanding of the common or commonwealth, is based on the definition of the term by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Apart from elements of the material world like the air, the water, the soil etc., as common are also considered â&#x20AC;&#x153;those results of social production that are necessary for social interaction and further production, such as knowledges, languages, codes, information, affects and so forthâ&#x20AC;? (Hardt, Michael. Negri, Antonio. Commonwealth. Belknap Press). In spatial terms, common space is understood as the urban space where this type of biopolitical production takes RUINS OF CRISIS AND TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY

The complexity of the property regime and the legal framework, and the way this is applied to architecture indicates that the problem is not just urban, but profoundly legal and architectural.

FIGURE 01

The complexity of the property regime and the legal framework, and the way this is applied to architecture indicates that the problem is not just urban, but profoundly legal and architectural.

ABST RAC T

[*] This booklet constitutes a brief presentation of the project Emergency Commons, a thesis developed during the programme March Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture|UCL (2013-14) and supervised by P.Issaias and C.Sotomayor.

This project focuses on the city of Athens and constitutes an attempt to discuss the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current condition through an understanding of the property regime that historically defined it. The urban space of Athens has been constructed based on the fragmentation of property. This fragmentation has been promoted by a specific legislative mechanism of the state, the system of horizontal ownership, which allowed for multiple individuals to owe parts of a building on different levels and in various percentages. The complex property regime of Athens is simultaneously related to two different crises. Both to the very well-known sovereign debt crisis of the last 5 years, and to a crisis of the very mechanisms of space production, which collapsed when the financial, political and social conditions that supported it changed. Starting from the ground floor of the city and expanding beyond, the project sees the architectural elements affected by this crisis (closed shops, stoas, courtyards, empty state properties and uninhabited apartments) as the field to question what the commons in the city are. The mechanism proposed to shift the regime of property are the Emergency Commons, a series of temporary occupations of the above mentioned spaces, which challenge the existing property regime and the administration of space. Due to the generic character of the typical Athenian block and the legal character of the interventions, a typical block with stoas is selected as a prototype to test the mechanism on site. As a result, starting from the level of the ground, the mechanism expands horizontally through the network of stoas and courtyards on the ground floors, but also vertically to include other types of property like the domestic spaces of the polykatoikias and the empty state properties related to this network. Finally, the technical approach of representation illustrates how even the smallest construction detail challenges a series of legal protocols, which affect the built environment of the whole city. The Emergency Commons is an urban design project presented in the scale of 1:50, exactly because Athens is a city shaped by architecture and protocols and not by urban design.

CONT ENT S

0 8

T H E PR O P E R T Y REGIME IN ATH ENS

CR IS IS IN S PACE

T H E G R O U N D FLO OR AS A PAR AD IG M

E ME R G E N CY CO M MONS

B IB LIO G R A PH Y

T H E PRO P ER T Y R E G IME IN AT H E N S

Historically the urban space of Athens has been constructed based on the fragmentation of property. Already, from the beginning of the 20th century this fragmentation was driven by a specific legal mechanism implemented by the Greek state, the system of horizontal property,

1. Law 3741 on Horizontal Property, published in the Official Government Gazette on 9/1/1929 Volume 1.

which provided for the first time the possibility of multiple individuals owning parts of a single building on different levels. The system was legally introduced in 1929 with the law 37411, which reversed the previous property regime, where the ownership of all the components of a building was concentrated to a single individual. This radical change in the previous status quo, facilitated the commodification of the built environment as it multiplied the value of both the land and the multi-storey buildings, and at the same time promoted a dense vertical development of the city. The new property regime was followed by a complementary legal apparatus, the General Building Regulation, which was introduced the same year, and which defined the spatial and architectural expression of the horizontal property system. By specifying the minimum and maximum dimensions of the components of a building, like the maximum allowed height, the regulation established the emergence and the expansion of the typical multi-storey residential building, known as the polykatoikia.

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

2. Law 3741, Article 6, paragraph 1.

The polykatoikia itself can function as an example to understand the

3. Law 3741, Article 2, paragraph 1.

within one single building. All the owners of the building are engaged

4. Sarcha, Athens-Gerani: City, Common Resource, 2010. p.27.

are considered private and which are shared by the owners. According

complexity of the property issues occurring from multi-ownership, even to a legal agreement, which defines which components of the building to this agreement, a single unit of property is restricted to the space of the apartment, meaning the interior walls and the internal surfaces of the exterior walls, which is owned by 100% 2. All other elements of the building including, the concrete structure, the foundations, the faรงade, the external walls, the uncovered space of the plot, the staircases and the elevators, the roof, and the infrastructure of water, heating, electricity and sewage belong to all the owners of the building proportionally, according to the surface of their property 3. This property regime creates complications in the decision-making procedures and affects directly any attempt of intervention to each one of these structures, whether it concerns demolition of parts, renovation

or even painting. All the decisions that concern the shared parts of the building have to be discussed and put into vote at the owners meeting. According to the owners agreement the condition for the implementation of any decision is 75% of the owners to be present at the meeting and 66% to agree. Especially in cases like the area of Gerani -a typical area of the centre of Athens close to Omonoia square- where there are buildings with 80 owners, this process is very difficult, and becomes even more problematic in the scale of the block where the number of owners reaches 600 4.

Law 3741 on Horizontal Property as it was published in the Official Government Gazette on 9/1/1929. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

02-03

Exploded axonometric and facade of a polykatoikia. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

100%

A single unit of property is restricted to the space of the apartment, meaning the interior walls and the internal surfaces of the exterior walls, which is owned by 100%. EMERGENCY COMMONS

Elements of the building that belong to all the owners of the building proportionally, according to the surface of their property. TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

5. Karidis Dimitris. The seven books of urbanism. Papasotiriou Publications. 2006. p.272

After the 1930s and especially in the post-war period, the

6. Constantopoulos, Elias. From City-Dwelling to Multi-Dwelling. Greece: 20th Century Architecture. Prestel Publications. 1999. p.80

private individual construction and was a conscious political

establishment of the fragmentation of property through the legislative framework promoted the housing production through decision within the context of lack of financial resources and the high housing shortage 5. As a result, from this early stage private construction emerged massively as a political mechanism, which replaced the welfare state and served simultaneously social, financial and political purposes. The complete dependence of the construction industry on the private sector created the ground for protocols to facilitate the financial transactions, like the institution known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;antiparochiâ&#x20AC;?, translatable in the international bibliography as quid pro quo. This private agreement is based on a cashless deal between landowners and contractors, in which the landowner offers his plot of land and gets in exchange a percentage of the finished construction 6. It was exactly this exchange process that did not require initial

capital for construction, which allowed for a large number of citizens of different social classes to become owners, and also eventually facilitated the divided ownership of a building. The regulatory framework through mechanisms like the horizontal property system and the General Building Regulation, eventually shaped the urban space of Athens to its current condition. An endless concrete mass of polykatoikias expanding from the centre to the whole territory of Attica, characterized by the extreme fragmentation of property.

Athens. Vincenzo Castella. 1998. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

CRI SI S I N SPAC E

The property regime in Athens is simultaneously related to two different crises. On the one hand, to the very well-known sovereign debt crisis of the last 5 years, and on the other hand, to a crisis of the very mechanisms of space production, which collapsed when the financial, political and social conditions that supported it changed. This collapse was not a result of the economic crisis, but of an on-going condition of crisis that begun decades ago and came from within the system of property itself. Although it is often argued that the current condition of the centre of Athens is a result of the recent economic crisis, it is the outcome of a complexity of factors that has operated for almost 30 years, and has expanded in different scales, from the centre, to the city of Athens and to the whole territory of Attica. Within the context of the economic crisis, property is used as means to govern the citizens, either through intense additional taxation on private property or, by associating property with debt. The same institutions, which previously promoted the accumulation of debt by individuals, now associate debt with guilt, and the debtor with deserving punishment. Property is transformed from powerful quality of a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity to an object of guilt and fear of a possible eviction or confiscation of property. Hence, the ruins that this crisis produces are not only spatial elements but also subjects living in the centre today. TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

Timeline of tracing historically a series of projects and legal economic, and political decisions of the last 30 years that have contributed in the formation of the property crisis and to the current condition of Athens. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

T H E GR O UND F L O O R AS A PAR AD IG M

The analysis of the spatial expressions of this property crisis begins from the ground floor of the city. The ground floor is considered as the spatial entity where not only different types of property intersect, but also as the space where the boundaries set by the regime of private property become more obvious. But above all, the ground floor is the space where the conflicts produced by this crisis of property and capital are most intensively manifested. Starting from elements on the ground level, like the closed down shops, the commercial stoas and the courtyards of the urban blocks, the analysis expands to other types of property like the domestic sector, the state properties and the properties listed for preservation. All the above are examined from a technical perspective in an attempt to understand the complex political, legislative and economic mechanisms that shaped them and the technical and legal issues related to their current condition.

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

CLOSED DOWN SHOPS

CLOS ED DO WN S H O PS

Closed down shops in the center of Athens. (Data Source: Research program ”Changing characters and policies for the city centers of Athens and Piraeus”,NTUA, 2011) TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

COM M ERC I A L ST OAS

EMERGENCY COMMONS

Commercial stoas in the center of Athens. TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

The fragmented property regime of a the courtyard of block with 9 stoas dead-end in the center of Athens, which cancels every potential of the elements to function as a network. EMERGENCY COMMONS

stoas A-J and the respective part of the courtyard that belongs to the same property buildings boundaries between different properties boundary of courtyard TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

legal boundary between the two separate properties

stoa | property

Detail of the property boundaries at the intersection of two stoas. Although the passage is experienced as a one stoa, the boundaries between the different properties are reflected in the change of the materialities of the floor.

EMERGENCY COMMONS

sewage infrastructure legally belonging to property B, but used by both stoas

stoa | property B

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

COURT YAR DS

[*] The term courtyard refers to the unbuilt space in the middle of the typical urban block of Athens. The courtyards are formed by the leftover spaces of the plots that cannot be built because of the restrictions of the building regulation that does not allow for 100% coverage, and are known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;uncovered spacesâ&#x20AC;?.

Courtyards related to stoas in the center of Athens. TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

34 M

The fragmented property regime of a typical courtyard. EMERGENCY COMMONS

35 K

parts of the courtyard that belong to each property buildings boundaries between different properties boundary of courtyard link between the building and the part of the courtyard related to it TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

D OM EST I C SEC T O R

Housing as dominant land use in the center of Athens, 2012. (Data source: Attiko Metro, 2012.) TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

S TAT E P R O P ERT I E S

Empty state properties in the center of Athens (Data Source: Research program ”Changing characters and policies for the city centers of Athens and Piraeus”,NTUA, 2011) TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

E M ERG ENC Y C O MMO N S

The complexity of the property regime and the legal framework, and the way this is applied to architecture indicates that the problem is not

5. Hardt, Michael. Negri, Antonio. Commonwealth. Belknap Press. p.viii

just urban, but profoundly legal and architectural. Athens came to be an entity produced by the accumulation of independent and separate housing units, and as a result became inhabited by owners of apartments, and not by citizens whose presence and expression in public space is collective. The current condition of the city, as it is described in the previous chapters, is considered as an opportunity for an alternative proposal to this fragmentation, which characterizes the current property regime. Therefore, within the context of the project, the architectural elementsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;shops, stoas, courtyards, apartments-which have been affected by this crisis of the construction system and have been produced based on the concept of private property and individuality, can be reversed and can become the field to question what are the commons in the city. The understanding of the common or commonwealth, is based on the definition of the term by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Apart from elements of the material world like the air, the water, the soil etc., as common are also considered â&#x20AC;&#x153;those results of social production that are necessary for social interaction and further production, such as knowledges, languages, codes, information, affects and so forthâ&#x20AC;? 5. In spatial terms, common space is understood as the urban space where this type of biopolitical production takes place. The existence of such spatial entity eliminates any public or private interest and is opposed to the notion of private, individual TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

6. For the Greek State the state of emergency is more precisely define in articles 48, 44 paragraph 1, 22 paragraph 2 and 18 paragraph 3 of the Constitution 1975/7986/2001, and in article 109 of the Parliament Regulation. 7. Koselleck, Reinhard. Crisis. The Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol.67. 1982. p.372

property. In a city where private property is established, not only in legal terms, but also spatially, politically, socially and economically an official complete cancellation of the current regime of property seems almost impossible. As a result, the project consists of a proposal for an alternative mechanism to shift the property regime and to propose new legal and architectural protocols, the Emergency Commons. The Emergency Commons are a series of temporary occupations of spaces affected by the crisis, which challenge the existing property regime and the administration of space, consisting of a combination of legal, administrative and architectural protocols. In political terms, the official definition of the state of emergency usually refers to a temporal moment when the government has the right to suspend certain procedures of the executive, legislative and judiciary power, to confront a national crisis, danger or conflict 6. It refers to a condition that is an exception to the norm, and is closely related to the notion of crisis. The project does not interpret the term emergency as a

response to an exceptional moment, as which the current economic crisis of Greece is usually presented. As it has been argued in the research, the Greek crisis is interpreted as continuous condition. As R.Kosellech has argued, “crisis becomes a structural signature of modernity” 7. As a result, the condition of emergency within the context of the project is defined as a moment to question the existing legislative and political institutions that have shaped the city of Athens to its current condition. The idea of the Commons refers to the alternative property regime and the new occupation of space, which go beyond the notion of private and public. The mechanism of the Emergency Commons proposes a system of ownership, which is based on a shared understanding of owning, administrating and occupying space. The notion of the commons does not refer to the specific space directly, but to the activity related to the production of the commons – in Hardt and Negri’s sense- that the mechanism allows to develop within space. As a result, the regime of property does not change typically and legally, but is modified from within through occupation and practice. EMERGENCY COMMONS

EMERGENCY A TEMPORAL CONDITION TO QUESTION, SUSPEND AND CHANGE THE EXISTING LEGISLATIVE AND POLITICAL PROTOCOLS THAT HAVE SHAPED THE CITY OF ATHENS TO ITS CURRENT CONDITION.

EMERGENCY COMMONS A SERIES OF TEMPORARY OCCUPATIONS OF SPACES AFFECTED BY THE CRISIS, WHICH CHALLENGE THE EXISTING PROPERTY REGIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF SPACE, CONSISTING OF A COMBINATION OF LEGAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND ARCHITECTURAL PROTOCOLS.

COMMONS A SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF OWNING, ADMINISTRATING AND OCCUPYING SPACE BEYOND PRIVATE AND PUBLIC INTERESTS.

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

FR OM T HE PR OT OT YPE T O T HE CI T Y

In terms of architecture, the Emergency Commons also contain a series of architectural protocols of micro-interventions to the different types of spaces, which support the protocols of property and operate from the scale of the construction detail, to scale of the whole city centre. 44

The design project begins from the ground floor of the city, the space where the different typologies of property meet and where the conflicts produced by this crisis of property and capital are most intensively manifested. The ground floor of a typical block with stoas is selected as a prototype to test the mechanism. Due to the generic character of the typical Athenian block and the legal character of the interventions, the proposal for the prototype can be reproduced, transformed and reestablished in other blocks and areas of the city. The proposed scenario for the prototype block is based on the unification of the fragmented courtyard and the stoas, by shifting the regime of property. As a result, starting from the ground level, the proposed mechanism expands three-dimensionally. Horizontally, through the network of stoas and courtyards on the ground floors, and vertically, through a system of light structures of staircases and terraces, to incorporate empty apartments, which become the field to question the domestic space patterns. EMERGENCY COMMONS

prototype block empty state properties housing as dominant land use courtyards related to stoas stoas closed down shops

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

Layered strategy map. Network of spaces of potential implementation of the Emergency Commons.

of the block Unification of fragmented uncovered space

Residential block

Temporary occupation of the roof with ligh

Unification of interior spaces of shops

Open dead-ends

Demolition Removal of parts from the volume of the b

Unifying materialities floor material and other elements along the stoas

Unification of stoas and uncovered space of the block

Open ground floor

Stoa

Exploded axonometrics of the proposed architectural protocols for the stoa, the state property and the urban block.

Axonometrics of architectu

EMERGENCY COMMONS Temporary occupation of the roof with light structures

20m

50m

Stoa

Unification of rooftops

ht structures

Vertical connections

Open empty apartments for common use

building

Open ground floor

Removal of separating walls and illegal structures of the uncovered space

Unification of fragmented uncovered space

State property

Residential bloc

ural interventions in different typologies of property

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

The implementation of the mechanism in zone of the historical center and the horizontal expansion through the ground floors. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

Plan of the proposed protocols for the prototype block. Due to the generic character of the typical Athenian block and the legal character of the interventions, the proposal for the prototype can be reproduced, transformed and re-established in other blocks and areas of the city. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

20-23

Detailed plans of the interventions in four stoas of the prototype block. From left to right: social kitchen, “collective” office, hostel, social clinic. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

A T E CHN I CAL APPR OACH

Finally, in terms of representation, the project follows a technical approach, in order to illustrate how even the smallest construction detail challenges a series of legal protocols and legislative norms, which affect the built environment of the whole city. The understanding of this trans-scalar effect came as a result of designing the space of an existing, typical stoa in 1:50. This detailed scale allows for an understanding

of the complications related to property and building regulations and how these are reflected in various spatial elements like electricity, water and sewage infrastructure, the materials of the floors, the boundaries between the stoa and public space, or the stoa and the shops etc. The interventions proposed for the space of the stoa are designed in the same scale, in an attempt to illustrate that, besides their surgical character, each one of them challenges different legal protocols. Even the seemingly simple demolition of a wall that separates two properties is related to a series of regulations, and is legally an impossible act that goes against the very notion of private property. The project unveils the technicalities emerging from the proposed interventions and suggests 24

A blueprint of overlapping construction drawings illustarting the technical approach of the project. (Drawing produced during an architecural representation workshop with Elia Zenghelis at the Bartlett School of Architecture, June 2014.)

minor alterations to the current legal framework to allow for their implementation and expansion. Eventually the Emergency Commons is an urban design project presented in the scale of 1:50, exactly because Athens is a city shaped by architecture and protocols and not by what conventionally is understood as urban design. EMERGENCY COMMONS

TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

Stoa section | Existing condition Scale 1:50

Technical section of the existing condition of a stoa.

10m

Technical section of the proposed interventions.

Section detail. Before. EMERGENCY COMMONS

Section detail. After. TYPOLOGIES OF PROPERTY AND RUINS OF CRISIS

BI BLI O G R AP HY

Aureli, Pier Vittorio. Giudici, Maria. Issaias, Platon. From Dom-ino to Polykatoikia. DOMUS magazine. Vol.962. 2012. Hardt, Michael. Negri, Antonio. Commonwealth. Belknap Press. 2009. Harvey, David. Spaces of Capital: Towards a critical geography. Routledge. 2001. Karidis, Dimitris. The seven books of urbanism. Papasotiriou Publications. 2006. Koselleck, Reinhard. Crisis. The Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol.67. pp. 357-400. 1982. Lazzarato, Maurizio. The Making of the Indebted Man. An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition. Semiotext(e). 2012. Lazzarato, Maurizio. Governmentality in the current crisis. Translation of a lecture given in Berlin. 2013. ( http://www.generation-online.org/p/fp_lazzarato7.htm ) Philippides, Dimitris. New Greek Architecture. Melissa Publications. 1984. Stavrakakis, Yannis. Debt society: Greece and the future of postdemocracy. Radical Philosophy. Issue 181. 2013. ( http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/debt-society ) Virno Paolo. A Grammar of the Multitude, For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life . Semiotext(e). 2002.

Researches National Technical University of Athens. Changing characters and policies in the city centres of Athens and Piraeus. Research Programme Phase B. 2011.

Student Projects Lympoura Theodora. Serifi, Christina. Through the stoas. Undrergraduate thesis. NTUA. 2013.

EMERGENCY COMMONS T YP OL OGIES OF PR OPER TY AN D R U I NS O F CRI SI S

MARITINA KOUTSOUKOU | 2014