The Commons Architect.e: altering urban architectural design in Brussels

The urban architectural design (uAD) practice in essence deals with the everyday livelihood of people. However, uAD is not disconnected from neoliberal mechanisms and urban governance. Frictions that emerge from profit-driven urban development and undemocratic politics in city making –represented by the personas of Economic Man and his architectural associate Modern Architect- call for another approach. As an architect, a researcher and an urban activist, I have explored how I can support communities in their ambition to take another, commons-oriented direction in the uAD of our city, Brussels. This is driven by a “(be)longing” that entails a desire to improve quality of life and democratization through uAD.

Through four years of doctoral research and design practice more than hundred actions and events have contributed to build up the self-proclaimed transitional use of the Josaphat site. As 25 hectares big nature zone, Josaphat awaits its transition from post-industrial land into a brand new district. Its symbolic status provide the fertile breeding ground for a “living lab at large” around which an electrifying air is forming, loaded with potential to develop other approaches in uAD.
A design-based participatory action research has allowed to explore an “altering” -approaching otherness as a strength- uAD practice. Three everyday architectural projects –a house, a garden and a kitchen- and their underlying commoning approach towards construction, housing, community building, ecological systems, food production and economy… are together represented through the persona of the Commons Architect.e. She stands as an unheroic model for a critical spatial practitioner that is caring, constructive, pragmatic, improvised and revolting.

Reflections on the doctoral research and design practice are disseminated through different forms of output that consist of a written account (00 & REC) and visual resources (LL, MAP, TL, P, EXPO). These are underpinned by concepts that flirt with theory as they give consistency to the practice. All together, the dissertation delivered three key results:

° a criticism towards the current state of affairs of uAD in Brussels, grounded in the experience on and around Josaphat. Approaching Josaphat as both a symbolic and symptomatic ground, the personas of Economic Man and Modern Architect help to address several matters of concern at stake.

° an insight into an altering uAD practice that explores the potential of urban commons on the field. This entails the exploration of the principles of the commons in the practice through a making in the everyday. Specific patterns and adjectives define the being of the Arch.e, while acts and techniques discuss her process of becoming. These provide a range of strategies, characteristics, tools and methods for an altering practice.

° a positioning of the altering uAD practice within the broader movement of participatory design and the Brussels’ uAD scene. Here the persona of Participation Architect helps to position the Commons Architect.e within a broader movement of commoning and civic involvement in urbanism. A range of guidelines are provided that could support a hypothetical turning point in Brussels’ uAD.

Keywords:
Altering spatial practice – urban architectural design – urban commons – everyday architecture – Brussels urbanism – transitional use - (be)longing – participatory design