final thesis article from fall 2012:

nomadic property – thesis article

final project – spring 2013

field manual booklet

midterm boards

midterm boards

midterm boards

thesis charette board

Nomadic Property – Thesis Abstract by Ben Leavitt

The system of real property ownership delimits urban form and experience, and often inflexibly prioritizes private value over communal experience. While some nations have maintained pre-modern precedents of the commons and flexible application of spatial resources, the United States, in particular, largely upholds a rigid system of private ownership and use. Despite this image of stability, the influence of a volatile economy, social dynamics, and temporal use patterns destabilize this system, which leaves certain parcels fallow for various periods of time. Though “property” often implies a plot of land or an object of ownership, it is also synonymous with a quality or characteristic. These subjective properties define a place but are not necessarily tied to a particular location. Thus, an alternative concept of property can exist outside of the legal boundaries of object or location and, rather, as mobile and nomadically seeking spatial opportunity. How can this alternative definition of property enable the communal use of these sites within fallow periods? What loopholes can be exploited to enable this appropriation into the domain of the common?

Nomadic property manifests as a sort of toolkit of tactics, adaptable and potentially dispersed to various locations and scenarios, that proliferates through a social network. This practice involves temporary interventions, however circumstances would determine a variable duration. In the case of more contested sites, the intervention could take on the form of an event or catalyst, while it could have a phased transformative effect in a location with less real estate pressure. These spatial tactics can adapt to change over time and place, enabling a fluid concept of property that exploits spatial opportunity.

Peralta Junction

Just a quick note about a new precedent in West Oakland. Peralta Junction is a multi-use “pop-up creative commons” that is open until December 15th. It is utilizing a vacant lot in an industrial area that has not been used for 12 years. The vacant space will be activated with a changing program that includes “art installations, creative workshops, local performing arts programming, micro retail shops featuring local artisans, Oakland-based food trucks, and a tented creative commons.” It has a three month trial period, though it may move ahead with a five-year plan if successful.

friern barnet library

In current events, the Friern Barnet Library, a local branch library in London, makes for a really interesting case study. This library, along with 270 other branch libraries in England, was closed due to economic and budgetary constraints. Coinciding with this closure, the British government also changed the laws of squatting residential buildings now to be a criminal offense on September 1st. As a result of these two conditions, a group of squatters and political activists has broken in and squatted the closed Friern Barnet Library. But not only are they using the building for residential purposes and as a political statement, they actually re-opened the library and are managing it entirely with volunteer labor, with much support of the local neighborhood, as it is seen as an important community fixture. I believe that there are real estate developers interested in acquiring this land as well, demonstrating the pressure that land value and privatization has on the future of this common institution. The references from the news are found below:

Story from The Guardian (9-11-12).

Editorial by Pete Phoenix, one of the squatters (The Guardian, 9-13-12).

Story from the BBC, 9-13-12).

I find this story interesting for a number of reasons. It demonstrates how certain events and changes in conditions (i.e. the libraries closing, the change in squatting laws, real estate pressures, perhaps also the influence of the local and global occupy movements) can act as catalysts for change. It also is a real life example of how squatting and occupation can have an affect on and gain the support of the diverse surrounding community, instead of being an isolated, esoteric movement. It is also interesting that the resulting newly managed library exists and is organized into a new sort of informal public sphere. It is current events, so it is yet to be determined, but I believe they are in negotiations with the city council and, though the library is autonomously organized and run, it may also have some connection to the existing library organization. I am interested to see what becomes of this movement.

Below is a timeline diagram showing the ownership, occupation, and use of the library over a period of time. The green volume is the city ownership of the library, which gets more transparent when it is closed. The blue planes are the squatters’ occupation, which is, for now, relatively unstable and from moment-to-moment. The red cylinders are the public use of the facility, which is discontinuous and stops when the city closed the library and restarts when the squatters reopened it.