Eman Afaneh

Mabru as a Productive - Living Commons

Master Dissertation

Hulya Ertas & Burak Pak

Envisioning the Architecture(s) of the Urban Commons 19-20

A city is a place of desire as David Harvey once wrote, “The right to the city is, therefore, far more than a right of individual or group access to the resources that the city embodies: it is a right to change and rein- vent the city more after our hearts’ desire.” (David Harvey 2012:4) Today’s cities are productive structures for collecting wealth and power transform- ing public spaces and resources into commodities. Privatization, commodification, and sanitization of public space in cities placed people in a pas- sive and consumption role instead of creators and participants. (Franck & Stevens, 2006).

These socioeconomic and political powers are dominating our cities’ transformation as Pierre Bourdieu demonstrates in his theory of Capital, that all forms of capital are used as a tool to maintain social control constantly reproduced and maintained through architecture. Consequently, leading to the emergence of informal practices as an act of resistance in everyday life. As the public is often previewed as passive, but in fact, people are active as they pursue their desires and goals in the urban realm. They resist the predetermined political and economical forces by looking for daily life alternatives. The way they resist the dominated spaces create loose spaces. One of these loose spaces that I will base my research on is Mabru Flea Market in the city of Brussels.

Having said that, I will base my research on two main questions: What are the alternative approaches to the urban transformation in Mabru to address and challenge the existing social and spatial inequalities? How can the loose space be rethought as an urban commons to alter the existing modes of social, spatial, and productive interactions? Envisioning a post-industrial city beyond a place of consumption and inequality. Rethinking the existing Base-Superstructure to challenge the existing power structures to stop reproducing the existing inequalities in our cities.

Over the past decades, the renewal of the European cities along with the rapid growth of services, globalized free market, high tech industries, and knowledge-based economics have driven the industry outside the city. Turning the city into a place of consumption instead of production.

Since the city itself and its citizens resist the recurrent neoliberal system in diverse ways. They express their dissatisfaction through transgressive acts that range From obvious forms of mass protests (ex. Protests in Lebanon, Chile, Ecuador, or boycotts) to more subtle forms (ex. Graffiti, dance, or art). Likewise, one form of resisting the dominant social order of global capitalism is organizing a common life by people themselves. (Stavrides, 2016)

Thus, the commons is, “a social system that refers to resources managed and shared according to the rules and the norms defined by the productive community.” (As defined by Kostakis & Drechsler, 2018). As such, the commons architecture can be used as a tool to reinvent shared spaces and inhabit diverse practices based on cooperation and solidarity. Accordingly, envisioning loose spaces at Brussels Flea Market space as a common resource that supports and gives space to diverse kinds of economies, jobs, and social activities.

References

Franck, K., & Stevens, Quentin. (2006). Loose space: Possibility and diversity in urban life. London: Routledge.

Harvey, D. (2012). Rebel cities: From the right to the city to the urban revolution. London: Verso.

Stavrides, S. (2016). Common space: The city as commons (In com- mon). London: Zed Books.

Intervening in the Second Phase of Schaarbeek Formation