Squatter Communes Towards a Future of Sharing in Co-Living Protik Choudhuri

Prices rise and distort the market and housing shortages worsen to the detriment of inhabitants of cities, who are pushed into the conditions of precarity, while the processes of unequal access and accumulation of capital among the population proliferate. It has been market-driven policies, the economic and political pressures, that have pushed people to rely on their own means and on infrastructures of commonality. This has manifested in the construction of alternative forms of collectivity, and new civic agency. By inhabiting vacant premises and imagining other models of family and ownership, the squatting movement has set up infrastructures of domestic solidarity. Across Europe, squatters have opened spaces for diverse and multigenerational habitation for those who advocate collective living. Through the appropriation and maintenance of industrial, historic, empty and abandoned structures, the inhabitants are at the same time activists, builders and architects who design the architectures of new forms of belonging, and new ways of being together. The aim of this research is to reflect on a series of Squatter Communes- their models for creating welcoming, inclusive, affordable housing. Through the implementation of sharing at various scales, in a number forms and means, squatter communes have developed new models of co-ownership as a means of liberating the commons from economic and political systems. Through participation and agency, they have extended the ideals of collectively and commune by directly intervening in and appropriating conventional architecture. By centralizing domestic labor, they have disrupted normative forms of domestic inhabitation and patriarchal structures.

Keywords: Squatting, Communes, Alternative Domesticities, Participation, Co-ownership

Collectivity as the founded by the imposing along the south national heritage authority, transform the building After lying squatted in 1980. carried out

1879

The administrative office of the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereniging, a company set up by entrepreneur Lodewijk Pincoffs, is built in the Kop van Zuid district to a design by architect JSC van de Wall (fig. 1)

1882

October 1980

The Rotterdam of Squatter Groups

Methadology - Squatter Commune Case Studies

monastery of the Order of Anthony is founded along the river in Maastricht, on the site current Landbouwbelang.

Construction of the Plantagekerk church on the Plantage Doklaan in Amsterdam (fig. 1, 2)

Plantagekerk Church

Amsterdam, Netherlands Original Function: Church monastery is partially destroyed siege by French troops. monastery is demolished in entirety. processing of cereals, and orders the construction of an industrial complex with a silo on the location of the former monastery. The building process was completed after World War II (fig. 1, 2) have contacts in the squatting movement that border on friendship. I feel grateful to have been able to follow this path of law. I also deal with lots of family cases, but the other part is squatting, and so far it has been very interesting and I will continue to do it for as long as I feel that I can make some kind of contribution of significance.

Vereeniging Landbouwbelang, association for collective agricultural sales and purchases, founded in Roermond.

1937 Landbouwbelang association series of warehouse complexes on another location the Maas.

Poortgebouw in high level of vacancy and against a new unoccupied buildings. of the squatters building suitable use it as a youth (p. 230: Letter circulated borhood about a new

1954 – 1956

Kampert en Helm constructs a building across the full width of the site at Plantage Doklaan (fig. 3). Presses are placed in the former church.

All property belonging to the company is acquired by the city of Rotterdam. The municipal port authority and the Holland-America Line move into the building.

Poortgebouw

Tbilisi, Austria Original

November 1980

WJ: The same applies to me. A key aspect is that I want to get to the bottom of things. Not superficially assist, but to try and look for the loopholes and the possibilities. I think what we achieved in 2010 was really something spectacular and that is the joy of my work.

Figure 3: Kampert and Helm printing firm.

Kampert en Helm relocates to Lelystad.

MOV: Do you think what we are trying to do will make any difference? The fact that there is a national institution of architecture claiming that it constitutes an important legacy? Is that at all useful in a court case, or is it significant only in the cultural or political realm?

April 1981 cities and neighborhoods while remaining outside of economic and political systems, while still sharing the spatial and social fabric of the city. At the same time, their circumstances extend the ideology of the internal commons to the most intimate levels of sharing- the sharing of personal belongings, furniture, tools, etc. Thus, it is perhaps in these more intimate conditions of sharing that squatter communes provide the most significant opportunity for reflection on the future of co-living. The 4 following case studies were chosen and researched from a number of sources with available spatial data in the form of plans and axonometrics. These were studied and then compared based on a series of significant issues and topics relevant to the future of co-living.

History of Urban Squatting, Alexander Vasudevan (2017) History of Urban Squatting, Alexander Vasudevan (2017) Architecture of Appropriation, Boer, Otero Verzier (2019) Architecture of Appropriation, Boer, Otero Verzier (2019)

1, 2: Plantagekerk around 1928.

Landbouwbelang’s main hall in use.

1929 – 1932

WJ: Yes. It is important to keep doing things like you do, because it puts the criminalization of squatting into perspective.

Figure 1: Poortgebouw, 1900.

Figure 2: Landbouwbelang in operation.

The Artis Squatter Group squats the buildings at Plantage Doklaan 8-12 and Henri Polaklaan 11, naming the whole complex Huize Lukraak. (p. 54: Press release to announce a new squat / p. 55 : Alarm system of Artis Squatter Groups / p. 56: Neighborhood map and list of buildings squatted by Artis Squatter Groups).

Methadology - The Scales of Sharing

From this, we can extract significant conclusions about how squatter communes may influence future co-living models by allowing the liberation of the commons from economic and political systems, allowing participation and agency by resident

The squatters engage cussion with the the legalization occupation. The considers a proposal ipality to transform into independent person household too expensive for The group is convinced renovate the building nity and on their can be offered. by the municipality association needs a warefor grain storage and the printing company Kampert en acquires the church and adds building to it.

RB: In the case of ADM, there are self-built homes that we deem an interesting contribution to architecture in the Netherlands. Such an acknowledgment by a national institute, would that be relevant in a court case?

The newly established Port of Rotterdam makes the building its headquarters.

1984 – 1994

The entire complex is in use as a school for vocational training. The former church serves as a gym.

The association closes the warehouse due to limited opportunities for expansion within the city. The building is acquired by the nearby paper mill.

1990s

1981

1994 – 1998

WJ: Yes, it would make a difference. Projects like these, that’s the main thing, they will keep putting things into perspective.

1977

The vacant premises are used by several cultural groups such as Intro

Squatter Communes

Poortgebouw starts space for squatters basement rehearsal musicians, and a

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Conventional Co-Living Models

The Port of Rotterdam moves out of Poortgebouw, and the municipality plans to turn the building into a brothel. After protests the plans are abandoned and the building remains empty.

VLUCHTMAAT

1982 systems, allowing participation and agency by resident and inhabitant, allowing for the rethinking centralized domestic labor and disrupting normative forms of domestic inhibition and patriarchal structures. We can compare them several distinct themes:

This office building a refugee collective in 2015, and an innovative economic model, transformation.

This diagrammatic graphic shows very simply the scales of sharing that are relevant to this research. What makes squatting communes valuable from this perspective is their circumstances extend the ideology of the internal commons to the most intimate levels of sharing- from the sharing of personal belongings, furniture, tools- responsibilities and burdens. Thus, I would argue that it is in these more intimate conditions of sharing that squatter communes provide the most significant opportunity for reflection on the future of co-living.

1. Co-ownership and the liberated (independent) Commons

2. Participation and agency

3. Centralization of domestic labor

Contrary to alternative forms of co-living models, the careful management of these self-organized and self-built spaces is fundamental for accommodating individual desires within the common good. The administration of a squat demands trust, commitment, time, and energy from its inhabitants. Successful, long-lasting squats learned to creatively organize communal living by destabilizing hierarchies, shifting roles, and using democratic committee meetings to make decisions. In addition, squats often align with and are supported by unconventional approaches to economic and cultural exchanges, forms of collective care, and more equitable and inclusive social, political, and technical