Architecture of AppropriationArchitecture of Appropriation

This chapter is part of the publication Architecture of Appropriation. On Squatting as Spatial Practice.

The cultural free-haven ADM was one of Amsterdam's largest self-organized communities with about 100 inhabitants of all ages and nationalities until its eviction on 7 January 2019. The property, a neglected shipyard, was first squatted in 1987 and again in 1997. It gave rise to an alternative social organization and an ever-growing spatial arrangement of diverse habitats, with dozens of self-built structures that served as places to work and live, and sites for permaculture practices and myriad cultural events.

Squatting, or the occupation of a property without the permission of the owner, was popularized in the 1970s. In the Netherlands squatting has been characterized by a high degree of institutionalization, and although the Dutch squatting ban came into effect in 2010, the phenomenon has continued across the country, albeit on a limited scale. The community of ADM had been fighting their eviction since 2015, but despite the efforts of their seven lawyers, and all the individuals and organizations who supported their struggle through more than 20 court cases, a final verdict in the summer of 2018 led to the eviction that winter.

With the closing of ADM the Netherlands also lost one of the architectures that epitomized its the once radical and visionary housing projects that the country seemed able to realize. Long under fierce real estate speculation, the majority of people living in cities such as Amsterdam now struggle to find affordable housing options, the initiatives of cooperatives and some public agencies notwithstanding. In this context, the spatial practices of the squatting movement still unleash strategies of subversion against market-oriented housing policies that overwhelmingly lead the development of cities.

Since the 1970s the squatting movement has played a major role in the design of the urban fabric and the domestic interior. Using unscripted and collective spatial tactics, rather than master plans or conventional design strategies, squatters have proposed alternatives to these dominant policies, arguing that the people's right to a home supersedes the right to property ownership. Through the appropriation and maintenance of abandoned buildings, these communities have been able to set up autonomous domestic infrastructures, free-zones, or spaces to house asylum seekers, while in some cases even contributing to the conservation of historic city centers.

Despite the evictions, a considerable number of squats in cities across the Netherlands have acquired legal status and, accordingly, survived as collective housing, workspaces, and cultural venues. Together with existing squats, and buildings that have been spared demolition thanks to the efforts of squatters, these communal spaces constitute the spatial heritage of the squatting movement. The ideals cultivated and propagated by squatters, such as the transformation of vacant premises, reuse of construction materials, and collective live-work spaces at a building or neighborhood level, have greatly influenced our thinking about the city.

Architecture of Appropriation recognizes the role of squatters in the transformation of cities and their systems of inhabitationSome of the notions and formulations included here have been previously published and presented in different media and forums. This publication is the culmination of a long-term research project developed since 2015.. While squatting is mainly understood as a social movement and approached as a historical phenomenon, this publication presents squatting through the language of architecture and spatial activism. It includes the voices of representatives and collectives of squats, architects, urbanists, researchers, lawyers, curators, activists and archivists in order to inspire alternative models to the policies currently driving the development of cities. An analysis of the architecture and design methods of the squatting movement are mobilized here to study their resulting confluence of informal practices, legal frameworks, and sociopolitical and economic conditions, as evidence of the possibility of alternative futures for the development of cities.

The main squats and their legalized counterparts analyzed in this publication are ADM, Wijde Heisteeg 7, Vluchtmaat, and Plantage Dok in Amsterdam, Poortgebouw in Rotterdam, and Landbouwbelang in Maastricht. These six examples illustrate the different spatial and legal strategies used by squatters to appropriate urban fabric and alter existing architectures to accommodate new programs. Alongside the project research methodology and documentation of the contemporary architecture of the squats and their legalized counterparts, the publication includes conversations with cultural activists, urban geographers, different generations of representatives from squatting information centers, and the lawyers who have been defending the squatting community over the last decade

Some of the squats presented here have unfortunately been evicted, even demolished, during the research process, evidencing the continuous threats to which these communities are exposed. This publication nevertheless argues the ongoing relevance of this spatial and political knowledge, stimulating debate on the inclusion of non-normative spatial practices in the histories of architecture, its platforms and its archives. Architectural representations of the participating squats have been developed by architects and students in collaboration with the respective communities, alongside a spatial and material analysis of the practices of squatting, its architectural strategies, typologies, design and construction details, and its legacy.

Architecture of Appropriation has already formed the basis for new acquisition policies at the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, acknowledging forms of practice beyond the classic notions of authorship in the production of spaces, using squatting as a paradigm. The methodology developed for this project was also designed for resisting and altering processes inside the archive that are often exclusionary and opaque.

This call to recognize the spatial practices of the squatting movement aims to demonstrate how architectural projects can mediate between vacancy, ownership, and the right to housing. This appeal was launched by acknowledging the precariousness of these communities, as well as the need to counter the general archival methods of acquiring objects and narrating history in a way which could lead to the separation of the spatial practice of squatting from the political, economic, and cultural contexts out of which it arose. Yet, in celebrating and protecting forms of spatial practice and the cultural and political knowledge that is generally precarious, non-author-based and often criminalized, we are also inviting architects to fight for, and design, the future terrain for other political possibilities.