00:00 – Introduction
04:15 – Presentation
Against the backdrop of the escalating climate crisis, social inequity and political polarization, the failures of governments or the market to provide even access to resources and opportunities is leading citizens the world over to take matters into their own hands, self-organizing by pooling resources and claiming their collective right to the city. The creative insights emerging from these practices of commoning offer an entry point for refuting the neoliberal mantra “there is no alternative,” and spurring the imagination of other possible worlds. What impact can commoning have on the bottom-up transformation of cities? And what agency do designers have in contributing to such commons transition? This talk will reflect on the long-term exhibition and publication project An Atlas of Commoning, an ifa project in collaboration with ARCH+, and discuss the commons as a contested field.
Stefan Gruber is an Associate Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directs the Master of Urban Design program. His work spans design-built projects and interventions in public space, urban design, and research with a particular focus on spatial practices and the political as articulated through the negotiation of top-down planning and bottom-up transformations of cities. Most recently, Gruber guest-edited ARCH+ magazine 232: An Atlas of Commoning and co-curated the eponymous travelling exhibition. Previous books include Spaces of Commoning (Sternberg, 2016), Big! Bad? Modern: (Park Books, 2015) and Vienna: Slow Capital (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2011). Gruber founded STUDIOGRUBER in 2006 after working with Diller, Scofidio+Renfro. His research and design work have been published and exhibited internationally and supported by the Graham Foundation, a Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky and an Akademie Schloss Solitude fellowship, among others.
