Fight, Squat, Resist: Housing Alternatives of Social Movements in Architecture of Appropriation
31 March 2017
From Thursday 30 March 2017 the installation Fight, Squat, Resist: Housing Alternatives of Social Movements will be on view as part of _Architecture of Appropriation, _a long-term research project on squatting as a form of architecture, now on at Het Nieuwe Instituut.
The installation addresses squatting as an alternative for communal living, in response to the housing problem in Brazil.
Alongside the stories of leaders of the National Struggle for Housing Movement, fighting for the right to the city, the installation presents the objectives, strategies, victories and urban visions of the movement. In addition, the installation illustrates the daily life of the residents of the Manuel Congo Squat in Rio's city centre. This squat is regarded as an example of participatory architectural design, in which residents and architects collaborate to realise a community housing project with public facilities. The installation shows that the struggle for affordable housing and access to the city is ever present.
_Fight, Squat, Resist: Housing Alternatives of Social Movements_ is Studio-X Rio's contribution to the Housing the Majority initiative in which Columbia University's GSAPP has been investigating the issue of housing and urban inequality on a global scale. The project was previously on show in Rio de Janeiro.
This installation is part of the ongoing collaboration between Studio-X and Het Nieuwe Instituut, that has so far manifested in this presentation, as well as the exhibition _Control Syntax Rio_, previously on view in Het Nieuwe Instituut and now on at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City until May 20, 2017.