COMMONING THE CITY

The studio looked at civilian-led initiatives that are helping transform the city. The study of these bottom up approaches then materialized as additions to the travelling exhibition "The Atlas of Commoning" organized around three axes of negotiation

- Tension between ownership and shared access,

- Tension between production and reproductive labor,

- Tension between solidarity and the right to the world.

Braddock Carnegie Library

The first Carnegie library in the US was dedicated to the community of Braddock who were also employed in his steel plant – Edgar Thomson Steel Works in 1889. “It was built primarily based on his idea that to be a well-rounded person, one needs to be educated, physically fit, healthy, clean and need to have culture in one’s life.” says Victoria Vargo, Executive Director, Braddock Carnegie Library. The library also included a bathhouse for the workers of the steel industry, a swimming pool in the basement, a billiards room, a gym and a music hall. However, it should be noted that not all of them were free to the public as Carnegie libraries exist now. Whilst the steel workers and their families could use the library and the bathhouse, much of the other services were available to members of the Carnegie Club who paid an annual membership fee. Almost 90 years from then, the library, under the ownership of the school district, lacked sufficient funds to run and repair the aging infrastructure and it was decided to be demolished when a group of residents, led by the last librarian, David Solomon, bought the building and reinitiated the library services again. At present, the library is run by the Braddock Carnegie Library Association. This change in ownership has helped change the library from an enclosed property accessible to all but the Black and Jewish community with amenities available for the employees of Steel Works and the members of the Club to an entity that is now open to all. The use of the library is now governed by the association that in turn relies on the community to determine what programs and services should be offered for them, thus benefitting the community directly. This process also helps create a sense of responsibility in the users and the community who end up caring for it too. Braddock Carnegie Library focuses all of its energy towards improving the economic and social conditions of the residents of Braddock and also partners with other organizations who have similar interests. Interested organizations who want to partner with the library are selected based on how well the ideas align with the library’s and if it would be critical and effective for the community of Braddock. It is also a firm believer that, “What people want now is not what they will want in 20 years from now”, so efforts are being channeled towards adaptability and flexibility be it either through renovating the space or through diversifying the collection of the library to be circulated. Sharing valuable resources such as space for the community and with other organizations, the knowledge shared and the labor that goes into the library both in terms of paid (office positions) and unpaid (volunteer works) has helped established the library take care of the community, contrary to how Carnegie libraries were designed to be supported by the community. A library traditionally existed as a knowledge commons but the practices of Braddock Carnegie Library “involves ethical considerations and political decisions that constitute a social and economic being.” (J.K. Gibson Graham, 2006) open, sensitive and adaptive to the community. It has helped generate a shared local economy as well as share and generate skills. In a way it teaches how to manage shared goods among the users, generating a civic identity in the people and establishing itself as a civic commons.

Zurich: Kraftwerk1 Heizenholz

Zurich in the 1980's suffered from a lack of affordable housing as the urban center grew. Tensions grew in the city among the youths, city and its hierarchy and their policies. It was during such a time a book written by P.M. or Hans Widmer -‘Bolo Bolo’- an anarchist, anti-capitalist social utopian book, influenced the conception of Kraftwerk1, a housing and construction cooperative, much later in 1995. Few questions surrounding discussions on affordable housing were

1. Who determines what happens in the city?

2. Who owns the city?

3. Who is allowed to use which rooms and are there new ways of living together?

In 1998, Kraftwerk1 Hardturm was built with 100 flats in four houses with 100 working and office spaces. It was the first housing to have shared flats. Not exactly a bolo – an autonomous community corresponding to the anthropological unit of a tribe of a few hundred individuals), it incorporated ideas such as solidarity support for the less profitable, shared rooms, commitment to the neighborhood, collaboration with the agricultural cooperatives such as Ortoloco and working in groups on different topics. Similarly, Heizenholz was also based on such principles and exists as a member of a network of coops rather than a solitary entity. As a bolo, it relies on coops such as the Ortoloco for vegetables and others for fruits and milk. Active participation of the future inhabitants during the conceptualization of this project meant that new forms of living and other social aspects were discussed thoroughly. Building off of the Hardturm project, Heizenholz introduced clustered apartments, each for as much as 9 people who would share a common kitchen and a living room.

A set of stairs on the exterior that acts as terraces connects all the apartment from the exterior. These furnished terraces seem in a way help establish contact between the different residents as it often becomes a place to meet the others. It looks out on to the street and is visible for the public is an intervention that helps the residents connect both physically and visually to the neighborhood and among each other. Residents are members of the cooperative and participate to vote at the general meetings. The decision-making body with regards to, for instance, apartment rentals resides on a three-body committee made up of two residents of the settlement and one from the Kraftwerk1 board. This ensures that decisions are taken up by those who will most likely be affected by it. Depending on self-disclosed incomes, residents pay a spirit contribution in addition to rent, between CHF 15 to CHF 55 per month, of which half goes to subsidize rents and community fund. The resident community, as a result of their discussions, have organized and written their own “house book” based on the statutes and the charter of Kraftwerk1.