Decolonizing Architecture is a research project initiated by the collaborative team of Alessandro Petti, Sandi Hilal and Eyal Weizman. Set up as a studio working in Ramallah and Bethlehem, they explore how Israeli settlements and military bases in the Occupied Territories can be reused, recycled or re-inhabited by Palestinians at the time they are discharged. Decolonizing Architecture uses architecture to articulate the spatial complexities of decolonization, assuming that a viable approach to the issue of appropriation can be found not only through the professional language of architecture but also by inaugurating an “arena of speculation” that incorporates varied cultural and political perspectives. Working within a spatial reality that Weizman calls “the politics of verticality,” the studio works on a broad spectrum of critically-engaged research projects with a range of experts, activists and organizations. For REDCAT, Decolonizing Architecture will develop an exhibition–their first presentation in the U.S.—that builds on their work over the last few years, alongside new projects. A program of lectures and presentations will be organized on the closing week of the exhibition. Check website for updates.

Decolonizing Architecture was founded by Alessandro Petti, Sandi Hilal and Eyal Weizman in 2007. PETTI 
is a research architect based in Bethlehem and is co-director of CAMP (Centre for Architecture Media and Politics) at the Bard/Al-Quds University in Abu Dis-Jerusalem. He curated Border Devices (2002-07), Uncertain States of Europe with the Milan-based studio multiplicity (2001-03) and Stateless Nation with Sandi Hilal (2002-07). HILAL 
works with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees. She is visiting professor at the International Academy of Art Palestine and holds research doctorate in Trans-Border Policies for Daily Life at the University of Trieste. WEIZMAN is based in London where he is the director of Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Weizman works with a variety of NGOs and human right groups in Israel/Palestine. His books include Hollow Land, A Civilian Occupation, the series Territories 1, 2 and 3, and Yellow Rhythms. Decolonizing Architecture was originally conceptualized and its pilot stage produced in dialogue with Eloisa Haudenschild and Steve Fagin, partners in thehaudenschildGarage, Spare Parts projects.

The haudenschildGarage, Spare Parts Projects

hG, Spare Parts is a 3-year cycle of projects commissioned and produced by Director Eloisa Haudenschild and Commissioning Editor Steve Fagin from 2006 – 2009 that encouraged the juxtaposition of the crucial, the trivial, and the arcane. The projects included Decolonizing Architecture, selected for the 2009 Architectural Venice Biennale, A Crime has Many Stories that premiered at MALBA in Buenos Aires in November 2008 and The Last Book which launched in April 2009 at the MAK Center, Schindler House in Los Angeles.

Decolonizing Architecture

Selected by ARTFORUM in January of 2010 as one of the top ten projects of the decade, Decolonizing Architecture was originally conceptualized and its pilot stage produced in dialogue with Eloisa Haudenschild and Steve Fagin, partners in the haudenschildGarage, Spare Parts projects.

Decolonizing Architecture is a collaboration between the haudenschildGarage and London-based architect and theorist Eyal Weizman and Bethlehem-based architects Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti. Decolonizing Architecture is a multi-pronged project that addresses the possibilities of understanding and redesigning Palestine in preparation for a post-evacuation time and context through two case studies, the former military base, Oush Grab, and the settlement of P’sagot. A scale model, architectural plans and public events, including an exhibition and symposium with Eloisa Haudenschild, Steve Fagin, Sandi Hilal, Eyal Weizman, Alessandro Petti and Lieven de Cauter at the Bozar Center for Fine Art in Brussels (10/31 – 1/4/09), were produced around plans for turning the fabric of the case studies into Palestinian public institutions.

The Manual of Decolonization is the result of a residency that Salottobuono (www.salottobuono.net) made in August 2008 in Beit Sahour (Bethlehem) at Decolonizing Architecture. The manual is a choral work where different approaches stood out at the same time. The production of the manual was supported by the haudenschildGarage and based upon a series of meetings with the “stakeholders” in this process. It includes representatives of various organizations and individuals, the local community, members of various NGOs, government and municipal bodies, academic and cultural institutions, local residents and resident associations. Click here to view the manual.

The manual and scale model will be on view in Los Angeles at SUPERFRONT as part of the exhibtion UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale (3/25/10 – 7/2/10).

In 2009, the project was presented at the Venice Biennale and in 2008 it was selected for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Decolonizing Architecture has also been exhibited at COAC in Barcelona (2009) and at the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam (2009-2010).

Click here to visit the Decolonizing Architecture website.

A Crime Has Many Stories

A Crime Has Many Stories, is an exquisite corpse project commissioned and produced by Eloisa Haudenschild and Steve Fagin of the haudenschildGarage, based on Argentine writer Ricardo Piglia’s short story, La Loca y el Relato del Crimen (Madwoman and the Story of a Crime, 1975) set in Buenos Aires and plotted with co-conspirators Judi Werthein, Sonia Becce and Alejandro Ruiz. Piglia’s text generated two site-specific pieces and a commissioned story by Argentine writer Washington Cucurto.

In May of 2008, the haudenschildGarage traveled to Buenos Aires to meet with its advisory curatorial committee. Argentine curator Sonia Becce and Argentine artist Judi Werthein selected a short list of artists for the project, working in installation, photo and video. From this short list, Eloisa Haudenschild, Steve Fagin, and Alejandro Ruiz selected artists Roberto Jacoby, Fernanda Laguna and Rosalba Mirabella for the two site-specific pieces. Monica Jovanovich coordinated the project in San Diego and Buenos Aires.

On November 29, 2008 a multidisciplinary, one-day extravaganza organized by Argentine producer Alejandro Ruiz began with a video of Ricardo Piglia’s elegant interpretation of his own text performed especially for our event and premiered at Malba – Fundación Costantini (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). We traveled from the opening of the project at Malba – Fundación Costantini to the closing celebration in La Boca by way of the projects by Jacoby, Laguna and Mirabella in a movable feast of culture and repast. The climax of our extravaganza was the inaugural performance of Washington Cucurto’s savagely brilliant short story, El Hijo, commissioned by the haudenschildGarage in response to Piglia’s La Loca y el Relato del Crimen. Cucurto and the literary collective Eloisa Cartonera performed an ensemble reading of the story in La Boca. A catalog of the entire project and a limited edition Survival Kit was provided to the participants at Malba to facilitate their journey. Both were produced in collaboration with Eloisa Cartonera.

The Last Book

For this project, the haudenschildGarage, Spare Parts produced an homage to “the book” in the age of the conquest of the Kindle. Steve Fagin wished to resuscitate the magnificence of the illuminated manuscript as the world turned toward darkness. Perhaps electronic technology could be used, not to leave the book on the dustbin of history, but to reconstitute a forgotten past where words and images danced in each other’s arms.

To this end the haudenschildGarage constructed a one of a kind book that included text, drawings, moving images and sounds. Its construction in the medieval, supersized tradition consisted of three illuminated folios each eighteen and a half inches high, thirteen inches wide and three inches deep.

To make this more than a dirge for the dead, a proper Joycian Wake, we incorporated into our project the live and kicking writing skills of Mary Gaitskill (Two Girls Fat and Thin), the macabre visual lyricism of Leslie Thornton (Peggy and Fred in Hell) and YouTube, the MySpace-with-a-twist drawings of Davina Semo, the retro-futurist music mix of Greg Landau, and as the piece de resistance, Shanghai’s notorious and ever so talented bad girl author Mian Mian as one of our readers with Monica Jovanovich and the Kindle. This bouillabaisse was concocted by Steve Fagin. On April 26, 2009 The Last Book was performed at the Schindler House, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles.

Decolonizing Architecture is a collaboration between the haudenschildGarage and London-based architect and theorist Eyal Weizman and Bethlehem-based architects Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti. Decolonizing Architecture is a multi-pronged project that addresses the possibilities of understanding and redesigning Palestine in preparation for a post-evacuation time and context through two case studies, the former military base, Oush Grab, and the settlement of P’sagot.  A scale model, architectural plans and public events, including an exhibition and symposium with Eloisa Haudenschild, Steve Fagin, Sandi Hilal, Eyal Weizman, Alessandro Petti and Lieven de Cauter at the Bozar Center for Fine Art in Brussels (10/31 – 1/4/09), were produced around plans for turning the fabric of the case studies into Palestinian public institutions.

Selected by ARTFORUM in January of 2010 as one of the top ten projects of the decade, Decolonizing Architecture was originally conceptualized and its pilot stage produced in dialogue with Eloisa Haudenschild and Steve Fagin, partners in the haudenschildGarage, Spare Parts projects.

The Manual of Decolonization is the result of a residency produced by Salottobuono (www.salottobuono.net), a collector of research experiences and design production, in August 2008 in Beit Sahour (Bethlehem) for Decolonizing Architecture. The production of the manual was supported by the haudenschildGarage and based upon a series of meetings with the “stakeholders” in this process. It includes representatives of various organizations and individuals, the local community, members of various NGOs, government and municipal bodies, academic and cultural institutions, local residents and resident associations. Click here to view the manual.

The manual and scale model is on view in Los Angeles at SUPERFRONT as part of the exhibtion UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale (3/25/10 – 7/2/10).

In 2009, the project was presented at the Venice Biennale and in 2008 it was selected for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Decolonizing Architecture has also been exhibited at COAC in Barcelona (2009) and at the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam (2009-2010).

Click here to visit the Decolonizing Architecture website.

Selected by ARTFORUM in January of 2010 as one of the top ten projects of the decade, Decolonizing Architecture was originally conceptualized and its pilot stage produced in dialogue with Eloisa Haudenschild and Steve Fagin, partners in the haudenschildGarage, Spare Parts projects.

The Manual of Decolonization is the result of a residency produced by Salottobuono*, a collector of research experiences and design production, in August 2008 in Beit Sahour (Bethlehem) for Decolonizing Architecture, a project by Alessandro Petti, Sandi Hilal and Eyal Weizman.  The manual and scale models from Decolonizing Architecture are on view in Los Angeles at SUPERFRONT as part of  UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale (March 25 – July 2, 2010).

Just as the discipline of architecture faces a re-imagination of itself in this era of slow-motion global capitalism, the human population finds itself crossing the threshold to a predominantly urban existence. Many of the basic tenets underpinning urban planning – Cartesian geometry, programmatic taxonomy, contextualism – have been subject to skeptical investigation and rebellion in architecture throughout the past decade. Yet conventional urban planning continues, the discipline of urban planning operating much as it has since the 1960s (if not the 1860s). Leveraging an interdisciplinary focus, UNPLANNED: RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTS AT THE URBAN SCALE boldly presents a collection of radical methods for envisioning and producing space at the urban scale.

A group exhibit with more than twenty participants, UNPLANNED spans architecture, urban design, industrial design, conceptual art, and cartography to present an array of experimental work at the urban scale. Multi-disciplinary practitioners address emergent urbanism, “wild building”, and other alternatives to conventional urban planning. The exhibit is curated by SUPERFRONT Founder + Director Mitch McEwen with Associate Curator Cecilia Brock and Gallery Intern Jackie Koenig.

Work is exhibited in multiple formats, from physical models to drawings, animations, software applications, consumer products, and live film. Dealing with urban situations from derelict construction sites to refugee camps, favelas, temporary housing and other contemporary spatial phenomena, the exhibition confronts the current economic crises and larger issues of globalization.

The production of the manual was supported by the haudenschildGarage and based upon a series of meetings with the “stakeholders” in this process. It includes representatives of various organizations and individuals, the local community, members of various NGOs, government and municipal bodies, academic and cultural institutions, local residents and resident associations.

Manual of Decolonization by Salottobuono, 2010

Decolonizing Architecture is a collaboration between the haudenschildGarage and London-based architect and theorist Eyal Weizman and Bethlehem-based architects Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti. Decolonizing Architecture is a multi-pronged project that addresses the possibilities of understanding and redesigning Palestine in preparation for a post-evacuation time and context through two case studies, the former military base, Oush Grab, and the settlement of P’sagot. A scale model, architectural plans and public events, including an exhibition and symposium with Eloisa Haudenschild, Steve Fagin, Sandi Hilal, Eyal Weizman, Alessandro Petti and Lieven de Cauter at the Bozar Center for Fine Art in Brussels (10/31 – 1/4/09), were produced around plans for turning the fabric of the case studies into Palestinian public institutions.

In 2009, the project was presented at the Venice Biennale and in 2008 it was selected for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Decolonizing Architecture has also been exhibited at COAC in Barcelona (2009) and at the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam (2009-2010).

*Salottobuono was born in 2005 as a collector of research experiences and design production. It investigates the urban space, codifying cognitive devices and triggering transformation strategies. Topics, challenges and programs are occasions for diagrammatic analyses and elaboration of paradoxical visions. Critical nodes, discontinuities and weak points are exasperated through the formulation of visionary objects and performative practicies based on non-authorial concepts and minimal rationality. Salottobuono is grounded in intellectual exchange and relational attitude built around a stable work group. Its experience develops through the participation in competitions, workshops, publications and specific assignments.

Click here for more information on the exhibition //   Click here to view the Manual of Decolonization

Click here to visit Salottobuno’s website //  Click here to visit the Decolonizing Architecture website.

Superfront Opening, March 2010

Superfront Opening, March 2010

Superfront Opening, March 2010

Superfront Opening, March 2010

In January 2010, ARTFORUM named Decolonizing Architecture one of the top ten projects of the decade. Tirdad Zolghadr writes:

“I’m a little tired of interdisciplinarity à la “exhibition research,” where we play semi-Foucauldian journalist or quasi-Rancièrian ethnographer with boring impunity. But decolonizing.ps shows it’s still possible to cross disciplines and act like adults. With a subtle sense of site and medium, format and form, Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti, and Eyal Weizman use architecture to articulate possibilities of decolonization: “Recognizing that Israeli colonies and military bases are amongst the most excruciating instruments of domination, the project assumes that a viable approach to the issue of their appropriation is to be found [in] inaugurating an ‘arena of speculation’ that incorporates varied cultural and political perspectives.” Said “arena” includes landscape designs for interrupting the colonial apparatus, proposals that strive to be both pragmatic and militant, inventive and long-term.”

The Manual of Decolonization is the result of a residency that Salottobuono (www.salottobuono.net) made in August 2008 in Beit Sahour (Bethlehem) at Decolonizing Architecture. The manual is a choral work where different approaches stood out at the same time. The production of the manual was supported by the haudenschildGarage and based upon a series of meetings with the “stakeholders” in this process. It includes representatives of various organizations and individuals, the local community, members of various NGOs, government and municipal bodies, academic and cultural institutions, local residents and resident associations. Click here to view the manual.

The manual and scale model will be on view in Los Angeles at SUPERFRONT as part of the exhibtion UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale (3/25/10 – 7/2/10).

In 2009, the project was presented at the Venice Biennale and in 2008 it was selected for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Decolonizing Architecture has also been exhibited at COAC in Barcelona (2009) and at the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam (2009-2010).

Click here to visit the Decolonizing Architecture website.

Selected by ARTFORUM in January of 2010 as one of the top ten projects of the decade, Decolonizing Architecture was originally conceptualized and its pilot stage produced in dialogue with Eloisa Haudenschild and Steve Fagin, partners in the haudenschildGarage, Spare Parts projects.

Decolonizing Architecture is a collaboration between the haudenschildGarage and London-based architect and theorist Eyal Weizman and Bethlehem-based architects Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti. Decolonizing Architecture is a multi-pronged project that addresses the possibilities of understanding and redesigning Palestine in preparation for a post-evacuation time and context through two case studies, the former military base, Oush Grab, and the settlement of P’sagot. A scale model, architectural plans and public events, including an exhibition and symposium with Eloisa Haudenschild, Steve Fagin, Sandi Hilal, Eyal Weizman, Alessandro Petti and Lieven de Cauter at the Bozar Center for Fine Art in Brussels (10/31/08 – 1/4/09), were produced around plans for turning the fabric of the case studies into Palestinian public institutions.

The Manual of Decolonization is the result of a residency that Salottobuono (www.salottobuono.net) made in August 2008 in Beit Sahour (Bethlehem) at Decolonizing Architecture. The manual is a choral work where different approaches stood out at the same time. The production of the manual was supported by the haudenschildGarage and based upon a series of meetings with the “stakeholders” in this process. It includes representatives of various organizations and individuals, the local community, members of various NGOs, government and municipal bodies, academic and cultural institutions, local residents and resident associations. Click here to view the manual.

The manual and scale model will be on view in Los Angeles at SUPERFRONT as part of the exhibtion UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale (3/25/10 – 7/2/10).

In 2009, the project was presented at the Venice Biennale and in 2008 it was selected for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Decolonizing Architecture has also been exhibited at COAC in Barcelona (2009) and at the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam (2009-2010).

Click here to visit the Decolonizing Architecture website.

¿Ciudad contemporánea? Consulte su locutorio

By Andres Jaque for El Pais, September 13, 2008

Urbanismo e imaginación se dan cita en el pabellón italiano de la 11ª Bienal de Arquitectura de Venecia

Más de la mitad de los caboverdianos viven lejos del archipiélago atlántico. Forman una comunidad dispersa, conectada por una red internacional de locutorios telefónicos. Establecimientos que con su decoración evocan paisajes que muchos hijos de emigrantes, que se consideran caboverdianos, jamás visitaron. Y que, además de los servicios propios de un locutorio, ofrecen cortes de pelo e ingredientes para cocinar a la manera de Praia. A diferencia de otras arquitecturas, estos locales pasan desapercibidos en la mayoría de las ciudades y, sin embargo, son puntos de inmersión y acceso a formas urbanas que la explosión de las migraciones y de las tecnologías de telecomunicación han hecho habituales. Pero son además construcciones que ponen sobre la mesa nuevas posibilidades para la arquitectura contemporánea. Todo esto forma parte del estudio Dispersion, a Study of Global Mobility and the Dynamics of a Fictional Urbanism que el colombiano Diego Barajas presenta en como parte de la sección Arquitectura Experimental del Pabellón de Italia de la Bienal de Arquitectura de Venecia, que se inaugura hoy. Los comisarios Aaron Betsky y Emiliano Gandolfi incluyen también el Edificio Jardín Hospedero y Nectarífero en Cali (Colombia), que Barajas desarrolló con Camilo García -su socio en la oficina HUSOS, con sede en Madrid-. El edificio combina una vivienda compartida con un taller de diseño de estampados sobre tejidos. Sus fachadas son el soporte de una vegetación que hospeda y alimenta a la variedad de mariposas de las que la ciudad de Cali es una potencia mundial. Con las telas, las amigas que componen la modesta comunidad internacional que comercializa los diseños del taller, recibe folletos diseñados para convencerlas de cultivar plantas como las que cubren el edificio. Folletos que ellas a su vez regalan a sus clientes. El mismo canal por el que los estampados se distribuyen promueve la expansión del hábitat de las mariposas que sirven de modelo e imagen corporativa al taller. Un hábitat discontinuo, pero conectado por redes que, como las de los caboverdianos, son al mismo tiempo afectivas, comerciales y tecnológicas.

Desde mediados de los noventa buena parte de los arquitectos de referencia han concentrado su atención en los procesos por los que las ciudades pierden diferencias, como requisito necesario para conectarse a circuitos interurbanos homogéneos. La participación de Gandolfi junto a Betsky ha hecho posible incluir entre los seleccionados para el Pabellón de Italia a un pequeño número de arquitectos que, partiendo del análisis exhaustivo de realidades concretas, desvelan, bajo la aparente regularidad de la ciudad contemporánea, cómo operan las nuevas formas de singularidad deslocalizada. Son también trabajos que entienden los edificios no tanto como soportes neutrales, ajenos a los procesos políticos o sociales, sino como actores materiales que contribuyen a definir los límites de lo que en nuestro día a día puede llegar a ocurrir.

¿Qué debe hacerse con las infraestructuras abandonadas que fueron diseñadas y utilizadas en el pasado para vigilar y reprimir a una parte de la población? Ésta es la pregunta a la que pretende dar respuesta el Decolonizing Manual del equipo formado por Sandi Hilal y Alessandro Petti (activistas políticos y arquitectos instalados en Belén) y Eyal Weizman (con oficina en Londres). La demolición no suele ser recomendable, el coste de los trabajos y el poder contaminante de los escombros termina lastrando el desarrollo de la comunidad. El manual, que está siendo aplicado en los asentamientos de P’asago y en el antiguo campamento militar israelí en Oush Grab, pretende evitar que se repita la experiencia de los cincuenta. Cuando el ejército israelí reutilizó las infraestructuras militares construidas para vigilar y responder revueltas entre la población árabe de Palestina durante el mandato británico. La arquitectura era un agente central en el proyecto policial británico y fue en parte la arquitectura la que activó un proyecto similar en el nuevo contexto político. En Decolonizing Manual la transformación de los edificios forma parte de un empeño mayor, el de incrementar la representación de la población en la construcción de la vida pública. Cada paso conlleva necesariamente labores que a la arquitectura competen. Demoler tapias y retirar telas metálicas para permitir el acceso a parte de los espacios al aire libre. Restituir la titularidad del suelo a sus legítimos propietarios. Desmontar la visión estratégica de los edificios coloniales sobre los tejidos residenciales. Todo decidido en reuniones semanales de los representantes de los agentes sociales afectados, entre ellos los arquitectos. Para Gandolfi este trabajo ilustra la evolución del rol social del arquitecto. “El antiguo arquitecto que ofertaba servicios técnicos fue sustituido en la modernidad por el arquitecto idealista que, con un pensamiento utópico, creía saber qué quería producir y qué efectos tendría. Decolonizing Manual muestra cómo en la actualidad algunos arquitectos, conscientes del valor político de su trabajo, actúan como mediadores para poder contar con un espacio de acción. Pero hay algo más. Como puede verse en el proyecto Plus, de Anne Lacaton y Jean Philippe Vassal, muchas de estas intervenciones son tácticas y requieren que los arquitectos salgan del estudio. La acción es el mecanismo para recibir una respuesta. Y es la capacidad de observar la que permite descubrir potencialidades y dificultades que sin ella quedarían ocultas”. Potencialidades como las posibilidades de transparencia o la diversidad social que contienen los bloques de viviendas de los setenta en la periferia parisiense en que intervienen Lacaton y Vassal asociados a Frédéric Druot. Y debilidades como la escasa calidad espacial de sus interiores, el abandono de un gran número de viviendas y la falta de aprecio por el entorno que manifiestan muchos de los que viven en ellas. Un proyecto basado en una oportunidad: demoler y sustituir una vivienda social cuesta 167.000 euros. Con una octava parte puede no sólo ser renovada, sino incluso programar regalos arquitectónicos que aumenten la calidad de cada vivienda y del espacio público que comparten. Como sustituir muros de cerramiento por grandes ventanas allí donde existan vistas valiosas, prolongar las estancias de las casas en terrazas de nueva planta o eliminar tramos de escaleras en el acceso a los portales. Un trabajo que sólo puede hacerse casa por casa, deliberado con sus propietarios.

En definitiva. Parece que no sólo en Dubai se debate la arquitectura del presente. Puede que sea el momento de pensar que los locutorios, los procesos parlamentados para reconstruir sociedades en proceso de descolonización o las reformas de viviendas de bloques de la periferia contengan una parte de la arquitectura que quizás ya nos toca vivir.

La 11ª Bienal de Arquitectura de Venecia se celebra del 14 de septiembre al 3 de noviembre.

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