Fluid Territories: On Allocation & Negotiation
In Discourse on Inequality (1755), Jean-Jacques Rousseau states that ‘the cultivation of the earth necessarily brought about its distribution; and property, once recognised, gave rise to the first rules of justice; [...] a new kind of right: that is to say, the right of property, which is different from the right deducible from the law of nature.’ Therefore, in Western modernity, man-made law was introduced in a violent way. ‘Defined’ space is the result of complex power relations, and rights are never distributed equally during the parcellation of land, its allocation among individuals or groups and the regulation of communication between shareholders. Walls and enclosures are the spatial protagonists of this historical process and are enforced by laws that cover property, trade rights and maritime space, monopolies, reproductive rights, and multiple physical, bodily and mental exclusions.
Yet the nomadic trajectories embedded in space resist these forms of delimitation. They instead distribute human and non-human subjects according to their habits and virtues, within a fluid territory: a field that is not regulated solely by legislation but also by customs and rituals. Such space operates through temporary relations, negotiations and associations that are reinforced by commitment. Architecture in this context can be seen as a device that mediates power relations, redistributes rights, negotiates forms of belonging, choreographs rituals, collectivises use and establishes forms of care and co-operation. It becomes a multi-scalar field of forces wherein space, its subjects and forms of power distribution are intertwined. As such, it has the potential to generate forms of life that resist exploitation, extraction and exclusion.
In DIP7, we investigate architectural propositions that react to these spatio-juridical conditions and which perform on multiple scales. We create frames that capture, forces that trigger, lines that appropriate and lenses that make visible the conflicts between space, rights and subjects.
In Discourse on Inequality (1755), Jean-Jacques Rousseau states that ‘the cultivation of the earth necessarily brought about its distribution; and property, once recognised, gave rise to the first rules of justice; [...] a new kind of right: that is to say, the right of property, which is different from the right deducible from the law of nature.’ Therefore, in Western modernity, man-made law was introduced in a violent way. ‘Defined’ space is the result of complex power relations, and rights are never distributed equally during the parcellation of land, its allocation among individuals or groups and the regulation of communication between shareholders. Walls and enclosures are the spatial protagonists of this historical process and are enforced by laws that cover property, trade rights and maritime space, monopolies, reproductive rights, and multiple physical, bodily and mental exclusions.
Yet the nomadic trajectories embedded in space resist these forms of delimitation. They instead distribute human and non-human subjects according to their habits and virtues, within a fluid territory: a field that is not regulated solely by legislation but also by customs and rituals. Such space operates through temporary relations, negotiations and associations that are reinforced by commitment. Architecture in this context can be seen as a device that mediates power relations, redistributes rights, negotiates forms of belonging, choreographs rituals, collectivises use and establishes forms of care and co-operation. It becomes a multi-scalar field of forces wherein space, its subjects and forms of power distribution are intertwined. As such, it has the potential to generate forms of life that resist exploitation, extraction and exclusion.
In DIP7, we investigate architectural propositions that react to these spatio-juridical conditions and which perform on multiple scales. We create frames that capture, forces that trigger, lines that appropriate and lenses that make visible the conflicts between space, rights and subjects.
Unit
Masters:
Hamed Khosravi, Platon Issaias,
Georgia Hablützel
Students:
Gordon Au-Yeung
Theresa Begon
Rachel Caul
Lynn-Sacha Hanna
Blanche Howard
Nikola Kechrimpari
Leela Keshav
Emma Magnusson
Saamia Makharia
Ferial Massoud
Bernadette Voce
Elena Zubareva
Hamed Khosravi, Platon Issaias,
Georgia Hablützel
Students:
Gordon Au-Yeung
Theresa Begon
Rachel Caul
Lynn-Sacha Hanna
Blanche Howard
Nikola Kechrimpari
Leela Keshav
Emma Magnusson
Saamia Makharia
Ferial Massoud
Bernadette Voce
Elena Zubareva