Toward a Radical Spatiality: Dissident Architectural Practices in Contemporary Occupations

Abstract:

The Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, los Indignados, Gezi Park, the Umbrella Movement, among others, are some of the most representative contemporary social movements that conducted important changes and open debate in fields like politics and economics. However, they are usually not related directly to the transformation of the architectural urban landscape in current cities. During the production of these occupations, dissident practices take place and alter established conditions of urban infrastructures that react as obsolete elements, while collective participation transforms spatial perception, the use and aesthetic of public spaces. This article focuses on the Umbrella Movement, the 2014 Hong Kong occupation, and how protestors modify, on one hand, the architectural urban landscape of the city and generate, on the other, design techniques through the use of quotidian and daily-life objects in dissident means. Pragmatism and immediacy are the main conditions of these occupations for creating spaces that occupiers need, and also for making visible a situation that is implanted deeply in the city: the privatization of public spaces.

Año de publicación:

2021

Keywords:

• occupation
• temporality
• dissidence
• collective
• public space

Fuente:

scopus