Anarchist architecture

Anarchist architecture starts from the premise that architecture is a political act and its main concern should be to fulfill the needs of a person or a small community instead of a power structure. It criticizes capitalist architecture, which is "increasingly commodified, sterile and elitist – part of a global capitalist system where urban space is equated with profit for a tiny few". The book Architecture and Anarchism, by Paul Dobraszczyk, catalogued 60 projects with "forms of design and building that embrace the core values of traditional anarchist political theory". Those values are, according to Dobraszczyk, autonomy, voluntary association, mutual aid and self-organisation through direct democracy. Anarchist architecture is deeply tied with the DIY culture. The structures often borrow elements from avant-garde architecture and art. ==History==

The Italian anarchist architect Giancarlo De Carlo was an important figure in the development of anarchist architecture. De Carlo, who opened his office in 1950, was active in the Italian anti-fascist resistance and in the post-war anarchist movement. He saw libertarian socialism as the underlying force of his design and considered non-hierarchical participation of inhabitants as an important factor in his architecture. During the design of a housing project in the early 1970s for workers at the steel factory in Terni, De Carlo insisted that the workers were involved during the design process during working time, and that management should not be allowed to attend. , Terni. De Carlo's participatory design was opposed to the modernist architecture of his time. He heavily criticized the functionalism of modernism, which he viewed as "too simple and unsophisticated compared with the complexity of reality". He wrote in 1970 that "architecture is too important to leave to the architects" and saw participation as a process of transforming "architectural planning from the authoritarian act which it has been up to now, into a process". It attacked architecture as the symbol of modernist contempary culture's worst excesses and drawbacks. Group member and sculptor Richard Nonas described architecture as a "hard shell", or resistance to change. The short-lived group discussed and debated spatiality, sculpture and resistance. It was described by member and avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson as "a completely literary thing". The meaning of the term anarchitecture is "elusive, appearing to shift depending on its user", according to writer James Attlee. Matta-Clark "used the word in different contexts both before and after the show, in interviews and in his notebooks", Attlee writes. "Since his death it has become closely associated with his wider ideas about art and architecture; indeed, some would probably argue that it has been hi-jacked by those seeking to foreground their own agenda." The term has also been used by Lebbeus Woods, whose architecture was deliberately inspired by anarchistic ideas and was made to inspire people to reinvent their way of living. ==Examples==

The housing project Nuovo Villaggio Matteotti for steelworkers in the Italian town Terni was designed by architect Giancarlo De Carlo according to his anarchist principles. De Carlo included future inhabitants during the design process of the project, which was realized between 1969 and 1974. Some of the principles that characterize the design was that the buildings "must be neither fragmented nor a single block" and his conviction that "pedestrian walkways [should be] built in a scale proportioned to the individual’s psychological needs: spaces that can be immediately perceived, walkways that are both variable and inspiring, the presence of greenery, carefully chosen details”. , Rio de Janeiro. Self built houses in informal settlements in the Global South, such as barriadas or favelas in Latin America, have been described as anarchitecture. These buildings are an illegal alternative to housing provided by governments and private companies. British anarchist architect John Turner saw such communities as an example of self reliance of workers. Turner described informal settlements as "architecture that worked" and advocated that the inhabitants of such settlements should be free to produce homes and social spaces for themselves. Another example of anarchist architecture is the tents and makeshift buildings during activist occupations, such as during the Occupy movement. Activists across the world built camps to occupy public spaces and protest against economic injustice. Refugees or displaced people who are forced to build improvised housing in semi-permanent camps could also be described as anarchitecture. Building cooperatives where people work together to construct houses could be considered as anarchitecture. British-Asian and West-African communities in the United Kingdom created housing cooperatives during the 1960s, where individuals would pay to join, take a loan from a fund and pay it back with no interest as a way to fund the construction of their houses. Some associations, such as the South London Housing Association (SOLON), were created with the objective of remodeling pre-existing houses. They became more active after the Housing Act (1974), that raised the funding for housing cooperatives in London. SOLON "was run on worker co-operative collectivist principles", where even the tenants were part of the association. In SOLON's case, even though the tenant had a lot to say about the reformations, the final decisions were made by the architect and the owner of the property. In some cases, associations were created to disrupt government building efforts, such as the Architects' Revolutionary Council (ARC), created in 1974. Leaded by Brian Anson, it had the objective of destroying the architectural establishment from England, specially RIBA, and invited architects to work directly for the population. ARC constantly interfered with RIBA's demolishing activities. ==Anarchitecture architects==

• Giancarlo De Carlo • Walter Segal • John F. C. Turner • Charles Jencks • Gordon Matta-Clark • Lebbeus Woods • Hassan Fathy ==References==