Review: Architecture of Appropriation

Abstract

Architecture of Appropriation Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam 27 January–25 June 2017 In the 1960s, the unsanctioned occupation of empty houses, commercial properties, and industrial sites in European and American cities accompanied the rise of new, urban-centered social movements seeking to reclaim the city from corporate interests. By the 1970s, the act of squatting, or appropriating vacant buildings and terrains, became increasingly militant; it left an indelible impression on the urban landscape. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Netherlands, where squatting played an important role not only in fomenting social protest but also in creating alternative infrastructures and a sense of common urban life. While squatters have historically been fierce advocates of the right to affordable housing and resistant to speculative real estate development, their interventions in the built environment have also precipitated the gentrification of inner-city industrial areas and even the “share economy” capitalism of Airbnb and flexwork. Rather than an installation of mute objects, the exhibition Architecture of Appropriation suggested some of the squatting movement's dual legacy in the Netherlands and transformed the galleries of Het Nieuwe Instituut into a hub for ongoing research and activism. The exhibition had four major components: an installation by the firm Zones Urbaines Sensibles (ZUS) on the exterior of the building; archival material and architectural analyses of case studies and squatting practices, housed in the institute's third-floor gallery; “pop-in” installations that dropped into the larger exhibition at different moments; and a series of public conversations, lectures, and workshops that were recorded and distributed as podcasts. The layout and graphic design of the exhibition (by ZUS and Jakub Straka, respectively) self-consciously deployed strategies of appropriation, reusing materials from previous exhibitions and the graphic identity of the institute. The clearest indication of the organizers’ interest in squatting's subversive character was the installation by …