Table Of ContentArchitecture and
Collective Life
This book addresses the complex relationship between architecture and public life. It’s
a study of architecture and urbanism as cultural activity that both reflects and gives
shape to our social relations, public institutions and political processes.
Written by an international range of contributors, the chapters address the
intersection of public life and the built environment around the themes of authority and
planning, the welfare state, place and identity and autonomy. The book covers a diverse
range of material from Foucault’s evolving thoughts on space to land-scraping leisure
centres in inter-war Belgium. It unpacks concepts such as ‘community’ and ‘collectiv-
ity’ alongside themes of self-organisation and authorship.
Architecture and Collective Life reflects on urban and architectural practice
and historical, political and social change. As such this book will be of great interest to
students and academics in architecture and urbanism as well as practicing architects.
Penny Lewis is Programme Lead for the University of Dundee and Wuhan University
Architectural Studies Programme, a job which involves teaching in China. From 1999
to 2007 she was editor of Prospect, the Scottish architecture magazine and a regular
contributor to national papers and architectural journals. Her PhD on The impact of eco-
logical thought on architectural theory from 1968 remains an ongoing research interest
alongside work on the city.
Lorens Holm is Reader in Architecture and Director of the Geddes Institute for Ur-
ban Research at the University of Dundee, where he runs the design research unit
rooms+cities. His written work focuses on reconciling Lacanian thought on subjectiv-
ity with contemporary architectural/urban practice. Publications include Brunelleschi
Lacan Le Corbusier (2010) and, with John Hendrix, Architecture and the Unconscious
(2016). His papers have appeared in Architecture and Culture, ARQ, Journal of Architec-
ture, Perspecta, Critical Quarterly, Architecture Theory Review, and Assemblage.
Sandra Costa Santos is an architect and academic with research in the fields of ar-
chitectural theory and architectural design with a particular interest in housing and the
home. She is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Architecture and Urban Planning, School
of Social Sciences, University of Dundee.
Critiques: Critical Studies in Architectural Humanities
A project of the Architectural Humanities Research Association
Series Editor: Jonathan Hale (University of Nottingham)
Editorial Board:
Mark Dorrian (University of Edinburgh)
Murray Fraser (University College London)
Hilde Heynen (Catholic University of Leuven)
Andrew Leach (University of Sydney)
M. Christine Boyer (Princeton University)
Jane Rendell (University College London)
Adam Sharr (Newcastle University)
Igea Troiani (University of Plymouth)
This original series of edited books contains selected papers from the AHRA Annual International Conferences.
Each year the event has its own thematic focus while sharing an interest in new and emerging critical research in
the areas of architectural history, theory, culture, design and urbanism.
Volume 6: Architecture and Field/Work
Edited by: Suzanne Ewing, Jérémie Michael McGowan, Chris Speed and Victoria Clare Bernie
Volume 7: Scale
Edited by: Gerald Adler, Timothy Brittain-Catlin and Gordana Fontana-Giusti
Volume 8: Peripheries
Edited by: Ruth Morrow and Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem
Volume 9: Architecture and the Paradox of Dissidence
Edited by: Ines Weizman
Volume 10: Transgression: Towards an Expanded Field of Architecture
Edited by: Louis Rice and David Littlefield
Volume 11: Industries of Architecture
Edited by: Katie Lloyd Thomas, Tilo Amhoff and Nick Beech
Volume 12: This Thing Called Theory
Edited by: Teresa Stoppani, George Themistokleous and Giorgio Ponzo
Volume 13: Architecture and Feminisms: Ecologies, Economies, Technologies
Edited by Hélène Frichot, Catharina Gabrielsson and Helen Runting
Volume 14: Architecture, Festival and the City
Edited by Jemma Browne, Christian Frost and Ray Lucas
Volume 15: Architecture and the Smart City
Edited by Sergio M. Figueiredo, Sukanya Krishnamurthy and Torsten Schroeder
Volume 16: Architecture and Collective Life
Edited by Penny Lewis, Lorens Holm and Sandra Costa Santos
AHRA provides an inclusive and comprehensive support network for humanities researchers in architecture across
the UK and beyond. It promotes, supports, develops and disseminates high-quality research in all areas of archi-
tectural humanities.
www.ahra-architecture.org
Architecture and
Collective Life
Edited by Penny Lewis, Lorens Holm
and Sandra Costa Santos
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Penny Lewis, Lorens Holm and Sandra
Costa Santos; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Penny Lewis, Lorens Holm and Sandra Costa Santos to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders. Please advise
the publisher of any errors or omissions, and these will be corrected in
subsequent editions.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lewis, Penny (Penny R.), editor. | Holm, Lorens, editor. |
Costa Santos, Sandra, editor. | Architecture & Collective Life (Conference)
(2019: University of Dundee)
Title: Architecture and collective life / edited by Penny Lewis,
Lorens Holm and Sandra Costa Santos.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2021. |
Series: Critiques: critical studies in architectural humanities;
volume 16 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021009429 (print) | LCCN 2021009430 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367633912 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367633905 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003118985 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture and society—Congresses.
Classification: LCC NA2543.S6 A62723 2022 (print) |
LCC NA2543.S6 (ebook) | DDC 720.1/03—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009429
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009430
ISBN: 978-0-367-63391-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-63390-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-11898-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003118985
Typeset in Univers
by codeMantra
On the eve of the outbreak of Covid19 the AHRA held
a conference in Dundee exploring the relationship
between architecture and collective life. The conference
was advertised to a wide range of academic disciplines,
to practicing architects and to other professionals and
activist interested in the built environment.
Contents
List of figures x
List of contributors xv
Acknowledgements xx
Part I Contradictions in a common world 1
1 Introduction 3
Penny Lewis
2 A tale of two villages: Jane Jacobs, Marshall McLuhan and their visions
of collective life 13
Joan Ockman
3 Interview with Reinier de Graaf 31
4 Neofeudalism: The end of capitalism? 42
Jodi Dean
5 Alternative models of tenure: Recovering the radical proposal of
collective housing 55
Martino Tattara
Part II New geography and the planners 69
6 A proprietary polis: Silicon Valley architecture and collective life 71
Claudia Dutson
7 Hyper-gentrification and the urbanisation of suburbia 82
Ross Exo Adams, Tahl Kaminer, Maroš Krivý, Leonard Ma, Karin Matz,
Timothy Moore, Helen Runting and Rutger Sjögrim
vii
Contents
8 The dubious high street: Distinctiveness, gentrification and social value 90
Aleks Catina
9 Zero-i nstitution culture 102
Louis D’A rcy- Reed
Part III Authority 113
10 Authorship and political will in Aldo Rossi’s theory of architecture 115
Will Orr
11 The heterotopias of Tafuri and Teyssot: Between language and discipline 123
Joseph Bedford
12 Interruptions: A form of questionable fidelity 145
Doreen Bernath
Part IV The welfare state 157
13 Constructed landscapes for collective recreation: Victor Bourgeois’s
o pen-a ir projects in Belgium 159
Marie Pirard
14 Vienna’s Höfe: How housing builds the collective 170
Alessandro Porotto
15 Learning from Loutraki: Thermalism, hydrochemistry and the
architectures of collective wellness 182
Lydia Xynogala
16 BiG: Living and working together 195
Meike Schalk, Sara Brolund de Carvalho and Helena Mattsson
Part V Autonomy and organisation 205
17 Design precepts for autonomy: A case study of Kelvin Hall, Glasgow 207
Jane Clossick and Ben Colburn
18 Calcutta, India: Dover Lane – a cosmo- ecological collective life of Indian
modernity 218
Dorian Wiszniewski
19 The city of ragpickers: Shaping a faithful collective life during
les trente glorieuses 228
Janina Gosseye
viii
Contents
20 Visions of Ecotopia 238
Meredith Gaglio
Part VI Practice and life 249
21 Intraventions in flux: Towards a modal spatial practice that
moves and cares 251
Alberto Altés Arlandis and Oren Lieberman
22 Ethics of open types 260
Davide Landi
23 The Age of Ecology in the UK 274
Penny Lewis
24 Opinions – or, from dialogue to conversation 284
Teresa Stoppani
25 Epilogue 293
Penny Lewis and Vicky Richardson
The Wally Close 305
Robert Wightman
Tenement: The collective close 309
John Joseph Burns
Index 317
ix
