Housing FuturesHousing Futures

Across the globe, cities have been taken hostage by neoliberal urban policies that are putting the fundamental right to housing under pressure. Rotterdam is one of them, along with many other cities in the Netherlands. Once known for its social, alternative and affordable housing models, the country is now the site of a rising number of homeless people, evictions, and expulsions of marginalised groups from its city centres, including groups that previously had fewer issues finding a suitable home. In this context, it is fundamental to again pose the question: what opportunities arise when the right to housing, rather than the right to property, takes precedence in the transformation of the city?

Since the 1960s, squatters have practiced this philosophy as a form of urban living, reshaping both the city itself and how it has been perceived and theorised. Using subversive spatial tactics instead of master plans and top-down design strategies, squatters appropriate the city and change it from within. Next to the tactics of collective resistance practiced by squatting communities over decades, diverse groups and collectives are keeping up the fight for affordable housing by pushing for changes in housing policies and by proposing alternative models for non-normative ways of living.

The quest for recognition of these collectives, their spatial, legal, digital and artistic practices, and their role in the design of the urban fabric, opens up questions of the power relations involved when the self-organised meet the institutional, and living practices meet the archive, the court and the municipal office. This necessarily brings in questions of institutional and non-institutional cooperation and systemic institutional violence. The organisers of these sessions, both institutionally affiliated and independent practitioners, seek specifically to amplify generative approaches, connect initiatives and explore infrastructures for self-organisation that could have a transformative effect on existing and emergent institutions.

To see the program scroll down

12:30 - 14:30 Workshop (rsvp*)
_Collective Memory: on Documenting and Archiving _
Alternative Housing Strategies - part I

What strategies are there to document and preserve the tactics, practices and spaces related to alternative housing for current and future generations? This two-day workshop looks at the role of the archive and archiving as a long-term strategy, and discusses examples of both autonomous and institutional archives and tools and strategies to collectively document, select, preserve and make information accessible. From annotating and anonymising information, to using documents in (legal) processes and the collective caretaking of archives. In the second part of the workshop we will research and practice different ways of collectively archiving autonomous communities and their spaces.

With: Simone Rots (Independent School for the City), Tashina Blom (ERC_ReACT, Utrecht University), Eef Vermeij (International Institute for Social History), Melissa Fernandez Arrigoitia (Lancaster University), Federico Poni (Habitat, Cà de Monti in Italy), Kavita Ramakrishnan (University of East Anglia), Woonwerkpand Tetterode, René Boer, Setareh Noorani, Marina Otero Verzier, Katía Truijen.

12:30 - 14:30 Workshop
Definancialize Housing

THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED

15:00 - 16:30 Session 1 - _Squatting Today and in the Future _

Despite the fact that squatting has been criminalised since 2010, there are still new generations of squatters who use vacant buildings for housing or organising events. In this session, we will discuss the current state of the squatting movement, and the strategies and tactics that are deployed to continue squatting. In addition, we will discuss alternative ways of living together emerging in squats today, as well as the future of squatting. Is it still possible for the squatting movement to play a significant role, now that there are fewer vacant spaces available and repression is increasing?

With: representatives from squats in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and a lawyer (Voor Recht)

17:00 - 18:30 Session 2 -_ New Models for Alternative Housing_

As the Dutch government fails to come up with solutions for the housing crisis, people are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. This session focuses on recent experiments in, as well as proven models for, alternative ways of housing based on self-organisation. Both the advantages and disadvantages, plus first-hand experiences of the various options, will be discussed in detail. The session will also consider new strategies from outside the Netherlands that may be relevant. Finally, the session will address the impact of privilege. How do we ensure that people with less social, cultural or financial capital can also benefit from these developments?

With: Stad in de Maak, Pension Almonde, Rotterdams Woongenootschap, Fucking Good Art, Bajesdorp, Project Together, Independent School for the City, Aska Welford

18:30 - 19:30 Food (from Keju Kitchen)

19:30 - 20:30 Lecture Our Social Housing Past by Michelle Provoost (Independent School for the City)

The fact that affordable housing has become scarce is all the more surprising in a country that a few decades ago was still known for its housing policy and the good (architectural) quality of social housing. Holland what happened? What about our tradition of social housing? Michelle Provoost will give a short historical lesson about the rise and fall of social housing in Rotterdam.

20:30 - 21:30 Screening Mijn Landbouwbelang (2021), Dutch

A documentary by Frank van Valderen, Hans van Hezik, Levon Lois and Michiel Ubels about one of the last squatters' strongholds in the Netherlands: the Maastrichtse Landbouwbelang.

12:30 - 14:30 Workshop (rsvp*)
_Collective Memory: on Documenting and Archiving _
Alternative Housing Strategies - part II (see Saturday)

12:30 - 14:30 Workshop (rsvp*)
Post-Growth City - Alternative models for a sustainable and just city past the growth imperative.

The current spatial development and urban planning practice is driven by a focus on economic growth. This lays a major claim on our environment, raw materials & energy consumption, pushing the planet out of balance. At the same time it has an undeniable impact on our cities: the shortage of housing, the ever-rising house prices, land speculation, segregation, climate pollution, and (over) consumption are just a few of the examples. This workshop is the start of a larger research project by Bura Urbanism and Independent School for the City on Post-Growth Urbanism. We will discuss what impact stabilization or de-growth could have on the way that we plan and develop our cities and villages, and what is needed to make a radical change. What are the visible and invisible instruments and principles of the current, growth oriented, urban planning? And what models already exist as an alternative to the current growth-centered model?

*The workshops are RSVP only and have limited capacity, please send an email including a short motivation text to i.hollmann@hetnieuweinstituut.nl to check if there are spots left.

15:00 - 16:30 Session 3 - _Legalised Squats: The Future of Free Spaces _

Hundreds of collective housing projects and free spaces started out as squats. Over the years, they were legalised as groups were able to rent or buy the property or place, thus maintaining affordable spaces for living and working for the long term. Many of these projects have existed for 30 to 40 years, and in some cases their existence is under threat. How do we ensure that such places continue to exist in the coming decades, while remaining relevant for new generations? Would it be possible to start new housing projects from these places?

With: representatives of ADM, Landbouwbelang, Poortgebouw and ORKZ

17:00 - 18:30 Session 4 - Housing Struggles & Alternative Models

As the housing movement gains new momentum, it is essential to continue to discuss the political demands for affordable housing. In addition, it is important to build bridges with groups that are committed to practical alternatives for affordable housing. How can we connect the recent protest with squatting groups, existing communal living projects, and new experiments in the field of cooperative housing? How can these groups reinforce each other? And what's next for the housing movement as a whole?

With: representatives of Bond Precaire Woonvormen, Hotel Mokum, Recht op de Stad, Stad in de Maak, Woonstrijd Groningen, Havenstraat and Woonprotest (Melissa Koutouzis)

18:30 - 19:30 Food (from Keju Kitchen)

19:00 - 20:40 Screening Era O Hotel Cambridge (The Cambridge Squat, Brazil, 2016)
Original sound with English subtitles

Era o Hotel Cambridge (The Cambridge Squat, 2016) is a contemporary Brazilian film directed by Eliane Caffé, made with the collective FLM< GRIST, Escola da Cidade and Aurora Filmes.

The weekend follows on from the research project Architecture of Appropriation which collaborated with six squatting communities in the Netherlands to document their spaces through architectural drawings, interviews, and archival material. Bringing together the expertise of the squatting movement, architects, archivists, scholars and lawyers, the project discussed approaches to the research, archival practices and representation of precarious, non-author-based, and often criminalised spatial practices in the institutional framework of an archive and museum. The project has manifested in different public programmes, exhibitions and publications, and is also currently presented as part of the exhibition _Appropriation as Collective Resistance_ (on show in _Designing the Social_ at Het Nieuwe Instituut).

The Independent School for the City is a postgraduate educational platform based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The school is an initiative of Crimson Historians and Urbanists and ZUS (Zones Urbaines Sensibles) and is rooted in their practice of combining a critical and activist approach to the city with effecting real change through architectural and planning projects. Previously, the School organised the Summer School Let's Be R¬al: New Strategies for Collective Affordable Housing, and Taking Back Housing! in collaboration with the International New Town Institute.