Anarchitecture
Anarchist architecture, also known as anarchitecture, is architecture done for the needs of individuals or small communities, contrasting with conventional architecture, that fulfills the needs of a power structure, such as the capitalist industry or the elites.[1]
Characteristics
[edit]Anarchitecture comes from the premise that architecture is an political act and it's main concern is to fulfill the needs of a person or a small community instead of a power structure. It differs from the communist ideas for giving the housing responsibility to the individual instead of the government and by applying solutions readily available in the present, instead of making plans that spawns for generations. The construction or remodeling process is decentralized, participative and self-organized, being deeply tied with the DIY culture. Many times, the structures borrows elements from avant-garde.[2][3]
Many times, anarchitecture is carried out unconsciously, as a community will simply react to their living conditions without the knowledge of anarchist theory.[4]
History
[edit]The term "anarchitecture" was created in 1974 as a title of an art exhibition led by Gordon Matta-Clark, probably as a reaction for the death of his cousin as a result of an apartment ceiling collapse on Bronx in the previous year. The exhibition inspired several artists to create The Anarchitecture Group, that "challenged the conventional role of architecture in society, and explored the ways in which architecture collaborates with capitalism".[5]
The term has also been used by Lebbeus Woods, whose architecture was deliberately inspired by anarchistic ideas and was made to inspire people to reinvent their way of living.[5]
Examples
[edit]Squatting is considered a form of anarchism architecture, as people occupy an empty construction and modify it for their own needs. One example of squatting is in post-World War II, where soldiers occupied empty army facilities.[2] Another example is Christiania, a commune from Copenhagen that was built in 1971 over abandoned military buildings.[6]
Tent cities are an example of anarchist architecture made when permanence is not allowed, as governments will evict and many times arrest their residents.[3]
Self-build is considered a form of anarchitecture. On Latin America, self-build was an illegal alternative from the modernist centralized housing models perpetrated by many dictatorships during the westernization process in 1960s. Some examples of such communities are barriadas and favelas.[7]
Building cooperatives have emerged in many parts of the world. According to the 1965 Milner Holland Report, British-Asian and West-African communities created housing cooperatives, where individuals would pay to join, take a loan from a fund and pay it back with no interest as a way to fund the construction of their houses.[1]
Some associations, such as the South London Housing Association (SOLON), were created with the objective of remodeling pre-existing houses. They became more active after the Housing Act (1974), that raised the funding for housing cooperatives in London. SOLON "was run on worker co-operative collectivist principles", where even the tenants were part of the association. In SOLON's case, even though the tenant had a lot to say about the reformations, the final decisions were made by the architect and the owner of the property.[1]
In some cases, associations were created to disrupt government building efforts, such as the Architects' Revolutionary Council (ARC), created in 1974. Leaded by Brian Anson, it had the objective of destroying the architectural establishment from England, specially RIBA, and invited architects to work directly for the population. ARC constantly interfered with RIBA's demolishing activities.[1]
Allotments usually are areas of a city that are not put for sale, and many times communities transform those places into community gardens, sheds or greenhouses.[6]
Notorious architects
[edit]- Giancarlo De Carlo
- Walter Segal
- John F. C. Turner
- Charles Jencks
- Gordon Matta-Clark
- Lebbeus Woods
- Hassan Fathy
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Coates, Michael (2015). "To Hell with Architecture: An Architecture of Anarchism" (PDF). Anarchist Studies. 23. Lawrence and Wishart. ISSN 0967-3393. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
- ^ a b Kontrec, Zvonimir (2012). "Anarchism and the built environment: Legacy of anti-capitalist rejection of social state in architecture, urban and regional planning". International Conference Architecture and Ideology. University of Belgrade. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
- ^ a b Bristol, Graeme (2024). "Architecture, Anarchism, and Human Rights" (PDF). International Forum of Kuala Lumpur. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
- ^ Coates, Michael R. (2022). "The Architects' Revolutionary Council: Architectural anarchy in Britain & Ireland in the 1970s and how to destroy the R.I.B.A." (PDF). Ph.D thesis. University of Sheffield. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
- ^ a b Burke, Jon (2022). "Anarchitecture: Anarchist Principles Made Concrete" (PDF). Anarchist Studies Network 7th International Conference. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
- ^ a b Dobraszczyk, Paul (27 January 2022). "How anarchist architecture could help us build back better after COVID". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 27 May 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
- ^ Bower, Richard (2016). "Who Decides and Who Provides? The Anarchistic Housing Practices of John Turner as Realizations of Henri Lefebvre's Autogestive Space". Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. 41 (2). SAGE Publications: 83–97. doi:10.1177/0304375416684856.