BOOK:Architecture of Appropriation. On Squatting as Spatial Practice Het Nieuwe Instituut

The book “Architecture of Appropriation. On Squatting as Spatial Practice” marks the outcome of a long term research program and collective endeavor by Het Nieuwe Instituut and a large network of collaborators and communities since June 2016. The squatting movement in the Netherlands has played a major role in the design of the urban fabric and domestic interior, and continues to propose alternatives to dominant, market-oriented housing policies. The book acknowledges squatting as an architectural practice. The publication analyzes the places of six still existing communities through architectural drawings, interviews, and archival material to build up a record of past and current struggles, spaces, and oral histories, forming the basis for a new acquisition policy for the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. The project brings the expertise of the squatting movement together with architects, archivists, scholars, and lawyers, to discuss approaches to the research, archival practices and representation of precarious, non-author-based, and often criminalized spatial practices in the institutional framework of an archive and museum. The book revenues will be used to contribute to the legal costs of squatting communities who are threatened with eviction. The publication is also available in a digital format via the project’s web magazine.-Dimitris Lempesis