Urban tactics and self-organisation

As mentioned yesterday by Kathrin Bohm of Public Works, here is the information related to Atelier d'architecture autogérée, of which Doina Petrescu (the external examiner for the MA Design and Environment) is a member: "Atelier d'architecture autogérée / studio for self-managed architecture (aaa) is a collective platform which conducts explorations, actions and research concerning urban mutations and cultural, social and political emerging practices in the contemporary city.

aaa acts through ‘urban tactics’, encouraging the participation of inhabitants at the self-management of disused urban spaces, overpassing contradictions and stereotypes by proposing nomad and reversible projects, initiating interstitial practices which explore the potential of contemporary city ( in terms of population, mobility, temporality).

It is by micro-political acting that we want to participate in making the city more ecological and more democratic, to make the space of proximity less dependent on top-down processes and more accessible to its users. The ‘self-managed architecture’ is an architecture of relationships, processes and agencies of persons, desires, skills and know-hows. Such an architecture does not correspond to a liberal practice but asks for new forms of association and collaboration, based on exchange and reciprocity and involving all those interested (individuals, organisations, institutions), whatever is their scale.

Our architecture is at the same time political and poetic as it aims above all to ‘create relationships between worlds’."