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Project

Increasing socio-spatial resilience through temporary appropriation of urban waiting spaces for housing: a Participatory Action Research on the Solidary Mobile Housing project in Brussels

This PhD research is embedded in the Solidary Mobile Housing (SMH) project, a Living Lab aimed at developing, testing, and refining a model and prototype for the co-creation of solidary living in mobile homes on un(der)used urban spaces in the Brussels-Capital Region. However, this study goes beyond the SMH project’s practical outcomes and theoretical musings. 

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the co-creation of temporary housing on urban waiting spaces, for and with homeless people and civil society organisations, can contribute to socio-spatial resilience. And to understand which consequences this has for the domains of architecture and urbanism. Therefore, in this PhD, we have interwoven Participatory Action Research in the SMH Living Lab with theoretical and case study reviews and a Critical Reflection on the SMH methods, experiences, and findings.

The main contributions of this research are that it shows how:

- resilience is both a multi-scalar and a non-linear concept,
- temporary project on urban waiting spaces, by a variety of actors, including vulnerable citizens, can prefigure the ‘city as it can be’ and alter our understanding of the future,
- the SMH Model is (in a preliminary way) demonstrating, in practice, what a Quadruple Helix approach to the housing system could mean,
- in this context, spatial design practitioners are becoming designers of ‘infrastructures’, rather than final products,
- the Community-engaged Architectural Design Learning approach, developed in the context of this PhD, can alter how architectural design knowledge is taught and learned in and through engaged practices,
- the methodological approach developed in the context of this PhD can inspire and inform others engaging in similar projects.

On the one hand, this PhD resulted in solid policy recommendations for operationalising transitional use of waiting spaces for housing. On the other hand, it also culminated in formulating the futuring ‘Stack’, a future perspective for increasing socio-spatial resilience through the solidary appropriation of urban waiting spaces and Networked Critical Spatial Practices.

In this PhD temporary use of waiting spaces for housing is forwarded as a small step towards - in the short-term - rapidly providing more affordable housing for the most vulnerable citizens and - in the long-term - transforming the Brussels housing system to include more solidary and inclusive ways of working, and the Brussels-Capital Region’s urbanism, to adopt a more ‘transitional’ approach to the city.

Date:16 Oct 2018 →  19 Apr 2022
Keywords:temporary use, Waiting Spaces, Brussels-Capital Region, Living Lab, Solidary Mobile Housing, tactical urban planning, participatory design, socio-spatial resilience, action research, solidarity, empowerment, transdisciplinary practice
Disciplines:Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences
Project type:PhD project