Recast by Design
Anna Kostreva interviews spatial practitioners about solidarity, politics, and sustainability in cities
Pilot Episode: Live Series Launch
Artist, architect and urban researcher Anna Kostreva presents selected excerpts from her new series Recast by Design in which she interviews spatial practitioners about solidarity, politics, and sustainability in cities across the world. Image Credit: Ilkka Halso
Episode no. 1: Ugahari w/ Y. Fajar Kresno Murti & M. Adriani
I became interested in Yoshi’s work from visiting Art Galari Lorong in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The building sweeps visitors in among a thrush of plants. The structure is playful and exposed up to the roof supports, all of its materials are visible — wood, concrete, metal — and many of these elements, like windows and doors, have been reused from other buildings. I quickly found out that the building is part of a method called Ugahari , which is related to permaculture. The structure is built by craftsman that think creatively and structurally with the materials, so the whole building is tactile, like a piece of handmade furniture. My interest was peaked and I managed to arrange an interview with Yoshi and his partner Maria at their house. Maria helped translate. She is also an urban practitioner and now the head of Sekolah (Bukan) Arsitektur (in English: School [Not] Architecture). She is often involved in the strategic or ideological side of the Ugahari practice. So it was an absolute pleasure to discuss the issues going on in the Ugahari method and the wider Indonesian context with the two of them.
Yoshi Fajar Kresno Murti
sekolah (bukan) arsitektur
Episode no. 2: Architecture without Borders w/ K. Muhammed
I found Kamil through contacting Architecture Sans Frontières Indonesia. Indonesia is situated in the 'Ring of Fire' and suffers consistently from natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes … but also from social precarity, poverty, and lack of adequate infrastructure. Architecture Sans Frontières International (ASF) is a network of architects concerned with social justice. Interestingly, they are held together by the Hasselt Charter. It is an inspirational and thoughtful pledge of 10 design ambitions ranging from defending and promoting access to dignified habitat as a ‘fundamental human right’ … to fostering social responsibility as more important than speculative economic profitability in the design practice. I can only recommend reading through the charter, reflecting on it and discussing it widely as a sort of manifesto for changing architectural practice today. Doing as much myself, still left me with many questions about how this charter could be implemented and even how it is being implemented by others. Kamil is a cofounder of ASF Indonesia and was very eloquent and detailed in his experience and responses to Architecture’s opportunities for social justice in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Architecture Sans Frontières Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia: Co-housing project at Ciliwung Riverfront
Episode no. 3: Architecture-Related-Art w/ Folke Köbberling
I learned about Folke Köbberling’s work and teaching because I also teach at the Technical University in Brunswick, or TU-Braunschweig in German, where she is a professor. She leads the IAK - the Institute for Architecture-Related-Art there. The institute is a bit hidden from the rest of the university, since it is located in the woods off-campus. This site gives professor Köbberling an interesting stage and plenty of space to experiment with her students, to collect materials, bring strategies of anti-consumerism into reality, and to think about mobility. Her work is unapologetic and exciting; ready to take on a post-growth or even de-growth future with disarming optimism. She is convinced about the richness of practice and aesthetics with all of the resources and materials we have right in front of us.
Folke Köbberling
Institute for architecture related art, TU-Braunschweig
Episode no. 4: Kunstblock and Beyond w/ Kim Sonntag 1, 2, & 3
I became interested in Kunstblock after a talk in Berlin, where some artists associated with the group spoke out about solidarity. In the past few years, I’ve been in professional settings where the word 'solidarity' raises eyebrows. Perhaps, to some, solidarity as a slogan connotes a naive anarchy that is more interested in its own violent expression of ideals than in working towards achievable goals. The softer slogan is diversity, which allows for anything and can easily find a mixture, even when it continues a status quo that renders the poor or marginalised invisible. Solidarity, however, is interested in the dirty work of understanding and even unraveling power. This is something I really liked about the Kunstblock artists Kim Sontag 1, Kim Sontag 2, and Kim Sontag 3. They are curious; they work in artistic research and action. They’ve got their heads on straight to take apart urban politics, real estate financialisation, neighbourhood dynamics and then to run media campaigns that bring the public into conversation about it all.
Facebook Kunstblock & Beyond
Twitter Kunstblock & Beyond
Episode no. 5: w/ Annelie Seemann and Marc Torras Montfort
This interview is with Annalie Seeman and Marc Torras Montfort, two young architects that have passionately developed their firm focusing on historic preservation using natural materials and regional handwork while maintaining a self-awareness towards sustainability and civic responsibility.
I became interested in Seeman-Torres after I saw a letter they wrote for an exhibition called “Letters to the Mayor” put on by DAZ, the german architecture center. The idea of the exhibition is to get architects to share their thoughts and visions for the city. I found it surprising that so few Berlin-based architects found a way to envision how architecture can play a role in a more sustainable future. Many focused on policy and urban planning in regards to housing and transportation, which is a logical thing to talk about in the context of political discussion. However, Annalie Seeman struck a different note, appealing to individuals to change their lives and expectations to be more sustainable with their choices at home AND by appealing to the government to subsidise these changes through the way we build buildings. Talking with Annalie and Marc in this interview and seeing some of their work has been equally refreshing and thoughtful.
Seemann Torras Architektur
Episode no. 6: Co-housing w/ Larisa Tsvetkova
This interview is with Larisa Tsvetkova, a researcher in co-housing with an astute perspective on the politics of housing at large.
Larisa Tsvetkova’s name started to appear in several different places for me. She has a diverse research-based practice into co-housing through writing, teaching, making publications, giving tours, and, currently, she is on the board of directors for immovielien - a network for building projects developed for and by the people inhabiting them. These are models striving toward city development aimed at the common good rather than for profit. In Germany, people may have heard of bau-gruppen, genossenschaften, and the Mietshäusersyndikat - or in English, building groups, cooperative housing, or the syndicate of rental houses. Outside of Germany, these forms of building collectives are less well known - but could prove to be powerful tools to fight gentrification and the destruction of livelihoods through economic downturns. In this interview we discuss the power of self-managed and self-produced buildings to respond to crises and to undo the speculative housing market dominating our cities today.
Netzwerk Immovielien: Network of real-estate, for the many and by the many
Episode no. 7: Voices for Spatial Justice
A show responding to anti-racism demonstrations and events going on the USA and around the world that investigates the responsibility of spatial practice to racial justice at the societal level, the personal level, and the professional level. It features audio clips from Mabel O. Wilson, Bryan C. Lee, and Angela Davis.
Episode no. 8: Yalla Yalla w/ Yasser Shretah and Nabegh Issa
This interview is with Yasser Shretah and Nabegh Issa, two civically minded architects with relationships to Syria and migration in Berlin. Nabegh Issa was trained as an architect in Syria, but also worked as a town governor in Al Hasaka, before the war forced him to flee to Germany in 2013. Since then, he has been working in construction management in Berlin. Yasser Shretah is a second generation Syrian-German architect who has spent a significant period of time in Syria, and currently runs his own office in Berlin. He has published the book “Flüchtlingsbauten. Handbuch und Planungshilfe. Architektur der Zuflucht: Von der Notunterkunft zum kostengünstigen Wohnungsbau.” (Refugee Housing. Handbook and Planning Guide. Architecture of Refuge: From Emergency Shelters to Cost-effective Housing) with Lore Mühlbauer and DOM publishers in 2017. He is currently working on a second book about architecture in Syria and Iraq. Both books have the intention to increase cultural understanding between German-speaking regions and the Middle East.
After the Black Lives Matter protests broke out earlier this year, I felt it was necessary to seriously take time to shed light on issues of racism in spatial discourse. So, please take a look at the last show, which focuses on the discussions happening in the USA. In this show, I wanted to find some access points into understanding racism in Germany and Berlin, where I live. It is impossible to cover all aspects of racism, especially in Germany where the terrors of the Holocaust continue to haunt society and while Germany’s horrific participation in colonisation and its instrumentalisation of warfare continues to be underplayed. For this show, however, I chose to focus on trying to understand the structural racism in Germany towards Arabic people and culture. This racism is visible in the contemporary urban fabric: forced evictions are happening in historically Turkish neighbourhoods due to state-sanctioned gentrification, mass shootings are happening with Shisha bars as their targets, refugees are removed over and over again from city centres, and pushed into container-housing on the cities’ edges. Architecture and the built environment has more to do with these events than we might initially think. I turned to Yasser and Nabegh to talk through how Anti-Arab racism can be understood in Germany, where it occurs in conversations and in space, and what architects might be able to do about it.