Author Archives: Julius Gavroche

Struggles for space: Architecture Without Architects—Another Anarchist Approach (3)

Le Corbusier. Structural skeleton of Maison Dom-ino, 1914-15. In essence, Modern city planning has always been bound to colonialism and imperialism—many large-scale technical developments were even tested and realized on colonial ground. Colonial modernity not only created global political and … Continue reading

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The Space and Time of Utopia

Reflections around the concept of utopia, on the 500th anniversary of Thomas Moore’s Utopia, reflections that echo earlier thoughts on the time and space of revolution. In revolution, everything happens incredibly quickly, just like in dreams in which people seem to be freed from … Continue reading

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Struggles for space: Architecture and anarchy, a mismatched couple (2)

  This is the second post of a series of essays that we share exploring the troubled relations of anarchism and architecture, or, stated differently, the possibilities of an anarchic dismantling of the masters’ command of space.  In the instance, … Continue reading

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The Art of Occupy

The beginning spills through city veins Into the arteries And under powers poison clouds We move like the shadows Through the alley ways Through nightmares bought and sold as dreams Through barren factories Through boarded schools Through rotting fields Through … Continue reading

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Occupy Wall Street: Sharing reflections on a fifth anniversary (8)

But communism is not an idea; it is a process, and the only things capable of mobilizing fidelity to it are the concrete activities of which it is composed. If we want to locate the ways forward for the blocked … Continue reading

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Occupy Wall Street: Sharing reflections on a fifth anniversary (7)

Theorising social movements is a hazardous adventure; even more so when these movements reject “representation”, which can be taken to include “theoretical representation”.  Without anyone being able to speak “for” or “on behalf of” Occupy, for it lacks leaders or … Continue reading

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Occupy Wall Street: Sharing reflections on a fifth anniversary (6)

We have begun to recognize that for our movements to work and thrive, we need to be able to socialize our experiences of grief, illness, pain, death, things that now are often relegated to the margins or the outside of … Continue reading

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Occupy Wall Street: Sharing reflections on a fifth anniversary (5)

Peter Gelderloos (Counter Punch 14/10/2011) analyses the spanish 15M and the north american Occupy movements, drawing comparisons and contrasts.  At the heart of his reading is the contention that what is, or was, most radical in both was the creation … Continue reading

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Occupy Wall Street: Sharing reflections on a fifth anniversary (4)

… communism will be material or it will be nothing. It will be a set of immediate practices, immediate satisfactions, or nothing. If we find discipline and organization, it will come from what we do, not what we think. Research … Continue reading

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Occupy Wall Street: Sharing reflections on a fifth anniversary (3)

Occupy Oakland exemplified what for many was the most radical expression of the north american Occupy movement, a radicalness that speaks of the political history of the city.  Having begun with a protest camp at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza on October … Continue reading

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