The economy of hot air – habiter, warmth and security among homeless people at the Gare du Nord in Paris

Abstract

Many of my rough sleeping informants were competing for surface-space on the hot air vents emanating heat around Paris’ Gare du Nord. During the winter months in particular, warm space was a scarce commodity and the hot air vents were an ideal starting point for shelter-making, or habiter. Introducing you to Ma, Miles and a group of Polish people I will demonstrate how my informants ordered the space around the vents, personalised it with physical objects and routines and hence managed to make (temporary) homes. Conflicts both internally and with security forces rendered this process perpetually cyclical, a movement that was made even more permanent with the introduction of hostile architecture. My observations were indicative of deep fault lines in the make-up of the city space of many metropolis: between public and private space, between what home is for one person and a transit space for another, between defending the property rights of the train station and home making practices carving out shelter.