Last Saturday I attended one of a series of conferences on activism held at the CIVA architectural institution in Brussels. ‘Agency’ was the key theme for the event. Two around-the-table discussions, one on activism, and one on architectural activism, were held at CIVA’s gallery space with an active exhibition also dedicated to these topics. The exhibition’s content is continuously updated, as the weekly conference series events progress. Representatives of activist and non-profit organisations, charities, architectural studios , universities and government were taking part. Below are three examples of organisations, particularly vocal during the event. The event’s key problematic revolved around representation and self-consciousness of activist institutions. Notably, the people present in the room to critique current activist and architectural approaches were predominantly white, middle class and from Flemish-speaking background.
‘Comuna’ make possible for abandoned buildings to be inhabited for non-for-profit functions and housing homeless. Some of the locations become popular and cause gentrification. Conuna’s concurrent objective is therefore to prevent their sites’ land prices from going up, i.e. ‘protect the project from themselves’.
‘Rotor DC’ enable the reuse of building materials. Existing structures are dismantled and new buildings are built under their supervision. When discussing their activity, the firm’s representative highlighted the importance of members of construction industry, other than architects – such as activist contractors and suppliers (who hire disadvantaged people etc).
‘Pool is Cool’ is a non-for-profit group who create free swimming pools in Brussels. ‘Dry swimming’ was one of their activist campaigns.
Furthermore there were groups and companies specialising in ‘School Streets’ (pedestrianising streets with schools), air pollution monitoring and organisation of collective cycle rides (that blocks some of Brussels streets for regular car movement).
no.balsa 