"Celebrating squatting"and "building an orchid house": Perspectives on public space and publicness from two contemporary architectural discourses of taiwanese squatting
Journal
Journal of Architecture and Planning
Journal Volume
16
Journal Issue
1
Date Issued
2015-01-01
Author(s)
Abstract
Contemporary discourse on squatting present various perspectives. Studies suggest influences from discourse on urban governance on squatting. The paper investigates two sets of architectural discourses on squatting. The first case is "Celebrating Squatting", an art show and a published book honoring the aesthetics of informality symbolized by squatting. The second is "Orchid House", an award-winning solar house proposal prepared for an international urban design competition. Research methods include content analysis of the book, the report, speech transcripts, and newspaper articles, as well as qualitative data analysis. The analysis draws upon Henri Lefebvre's and Michel de Certeau's theories to analyze the data, identifying public space and publicness as two dimensions emphasized by each discourse. "Celebrating squatting" sees squatting as contesting public space and resisting Modernist architecture and Capitalist city. Squatting represents spatial tactics producing representational space. Orchid House aims to reclaim public space from squatters by rebuilding a solar house as a representation of space. Housing rights, sustainability, and urban aesthetics are its three elements of publicness. Each discourse shows a dualist perspective on squatting, thus failing to benefit governance policies significantly. Conclusions suggest a holistic discourse that considers squatters' behavior, urban policy, and architectural practice as each case's context. In doing so, a discourse is more likely toinform urban policy and professional practice.
Subjects
Architectural discourse | Public space | Publicness | Squatting
Type
other