Academic article - HTC

HISTOIRE THEORIE CRITIQUE

Jan 2023 | www.htc.be

COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURES COMMONS IN ARCHITECTURE

This article investigates the role of practices of commons in architecture through the recent professional path of the architectural cooperative, Lacol, and the possible forms that it can take —including community participation and infrastructures and cooperative housing projects— as a collective way of making the cities of today. Precisely, it addresses the rising of the commons as an alternative way of the community of Can Batlló’s, a post-industrial area in Barcelona, against the neoliberal exterior forces. It seems that Lacol was there, long time before their cooperative housing project, called La Borda, where they started engaging practices of commoning to secure Can Batlló’s site by building community infrastructures for the regeneration of common space.

Various practices of commons will be unfolded, not only as a mutual participation and collaboration between Can Batlló’s community and the architects, but also as architectural outcomes that are influenced and influence by having as catalyst the common space in design. It argues the complexity and the long process for an architect to be part, facilitator, and expertise in the community’s evolution. Community-led and community-oriented practices, which demand motivation and commitment, even though not enough. With focus on cooperative housing projects, notably the one of La Borda, the article argues the architectural practices beyond the dimensions of the final architectural result. Furthermore, it addresses the limitations and constraints of the replication of such practices and community infrastructures from internal and external factors –including legislations, funding, and neoliberal forces. Although, the recent obstacles to Can Batlló’s activity as producer of commoning space, Lacol’s success in hyperlocal level seems important, not only by their intention to spread their practices across other communities in Barcelona, but also to share the knowledge accumulated in their Can Batlló’s experience in order to evolve their practices among other grassroots movements and passionate practitioners.

Drawing upon historical events and contemporary theorizations and documentation of the commons, this paper argues for the agency of commoning in the architectural process, and specifically in the definition and the realization of community infrastructures, such as housing cooperatives.

Absract

City planners usually solve social injustices caused by neoliberal forces by offering affordable solutions, like social housing. However, communities questioning their social sustainability, call upon practices of commons to make their voices heard and take action. The case of an architectural cooperative that listens, and work with and for communities.

-1. Before La Borda

The photo of the cover of the article: The south facade of the CHP of La Borda.

source: Akazawa, B. (2021) image, Available via a privately shared web drive with license of Lacol, access to a privately shared web drive with license of Lacol.

Renaissance of Commons?

1. EU Mies Award (2022) La Borda - Cooperative Housing Available at: https://miesarch. com/work/4554 (Accessed: 17 January 2023).

2022, Mies Van der Rohe awards. That is what attracted my attention during a spontaneous visit of Bozar, the fine arts center in Brussels, in Belgium. An exposition for the biennial European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies Van der Rohe. Among the several architectural projects exposed, one project stood out. A cooperative housing project, called La Borda, with its interior atrium surrounded by light profile -corridors and wooden structure housing units. A spatial configuration designed by the architecture cooperative under the name Lacol, located in Barcelona, in Spain, same as the housing project. Having won the emerging architect prize1, their commitment to the community of Lacol was strongly mentioned as a catalyst to the materialization of the final project that I observed in the photos of the expo. A process and a result of commoning. A term that I tend to come across more and more, mostly out of the context of architecture, though.

2. Documenta fifteen (2022) About. Available at: https:// documenta-fifteen.de/en/ about/ Accessed: 17 January 2023).

The photo to the left was one of the main photos at the exposition Mies Van der Rohe awards. It shows the patio of La Borda after its full construction.

source: Miralles, L. (n.d.) La Borda - Cooperative Housing, image, EU mies awards, Available at: https://miesarch. com/work/4554 (Accessed: 25 January 2023).

Same year. Documenta 15. The largest contemporary art event in the world, held in Cassel, in Germany, manifested the commons. As they mentioned there, commons for them is more than a physical space that is shared among different artists and creators, but it can be a collective way of working based on a community–oriented model2. The main goal there was to bring awareness to the big audience of the strong necessity of forming spaces that are crafted by, and regenerating the ideas of commoning, such as their online archive platform. At the same time, Wikipedia, the online platform can be described as a practice of commons, as an online and free platform of information that provides the opportunity to the bigger community to share and shape knowledge with a further intention of the right to the access to information and knowledge. Commoners, although, can also be perceived as citizens who share a common land for their common and/or personal interests. From community gardens to even the occupation of vacant buildings. A group of people with common values that willing to be a part of a well-defined community that is involving through the time.

All these aforementioned definitions are partial, and at the same time holistic, definitions of what commons can be. Because, practices of commons cannot exist without commoners, without people, and that is why in every different community, and furthermore society, commons vary. A diagrammatic scheme of commons, can be visualized by three factors, all connected with them: the people who practices commons (the commoners), then the actions themselves or in other words the practices of commoning, and the finally the tangible dimension of commons as a dipole of resource and result. For the latter one, it can be understood as a physical space accessible to the commoners ready to be shaped to a safe space for them in order to generate even more commons. We cannot although, perceive commons as a mosaic of three polarized factors. It is undoubtedly, a three-dimensional entity that each of the three factors is defined by and simultaneously defines the other two. For instance, the evolution of the community shapes the rules and actions of its members among the community, and vice versa. And then, the space of commons, who is crafted by the practices of commons, influence the community as an indirect and perennial practice of commons. In that way, commons feel vital to the societies!

Especially, since the financial crisis of 2008, practices of commons have been becoming more and more of an essential alternative of how sociospatial structures and infrastructures are created in the urban environments. More and more polarized and isolated group of people, who felt that they have been left behind from the agenda of city planning and urban development, started to find shelter under the commoning. Often, conventional and popular providers of funding of services and infrastructures -such as housing real estates, as well as the public authorities- failed to include in their agendas these groups. And that is when citizens, and mostly grassroots, decided to take the initiatives. Commoners who were seeking of safe spaces against the neoliberal market. Artists, and group of people that couldn’t afford decent housing, workspace and place of social interaction. Outside of the spectrum of capitalism as a demand for the right to the city.

Here, it is worth to focus more in the case of common land. A quite usual example of practices of commons, even from the middle ages in occidental societies. The reason of their almost existence? For that, the feudal system was responsible, were different individual actors used to force people towards the practices of commons against the constant increasing of property accumulation –and in a later stage the accumulation of services. And it is actually in a similar way, where commons feel like a forced necessity for some citizens in the urban environment of today. Can we call it then, the renaissance of urban commons? It will maybe feel like an overstatement, since there are several examples from different corners in the European continent –

This diagram intents to demonstrate the complexity of what commons can be and from what commons are influenced, while showing the interconnectivities among them. Between practices of commons, commoners, and common space.

3. Dardot, P. & Laval, C. (2015) Commun: essai sur la révolution au XXIe siècle. Paris: Découverte, p.98.

not even including other ones from South America- throughout the recent history. What is important maybe nowadays, is to give and create space of reproduction to examples of commons that propose holistic solutions to fundamental societal problems, and therefore to get inspired of them. Like community infrastructures that constraint or even go against the privatization and commodification of land and services.3

4. Stavros Stavridis is architect and professor at the School of Architecture, NTUA. Some of his books, which investigate the meaning of urban space and the practices of its habitation are: Towards the City of Thresholds (2011), Common Space (forthcoming). Especially in recent years, his work has focused on the theoretical approach to public space and the forms that the struggles for the right to the city take.

5. California College of the Arts – CCA (2020) Reclaiming Land Pt. III: Commoning Practices as ActsofResistance|Architecture division. 30 October. Available at: (761) Reclaiming Land Pt. III: Commoning Practices as Acts of Resistance | Architecture division - YouTube (Accessed: 16 January 2023).

This diagram intents to connect the different elements and factors that formed La Borda and vice-versa. The community of Can Batlló, then Lacol with architectural tools and expertises, and finally La Borda the result of CHP. It indicates that La Borda is a mosaic of practices of different actors. And how actually, these actors, Lacol and Can Batlló’s community, get inspired and influence each other with common purpose.

Although, the number of researchers with topics around the commons is constantly increasing, expanding the notions of what they can be and where to be applied -and by that shaping new policies and ways of living- the contribution of city planners, such as urban planners and architects, it feels still weak to help on what commons are there for. Most of the time, stuck with restricting local regulations and absence of enough funding to explore and innovate, architects are alienated from projects that enables reclaiming land through and for commoning. The dominant neoliberal social status of their work almost go against the ideas of commoning. Under this perspective, professional architects seem, in my opinion, to lack from competence and knowledge that can craft common spaces in any form. As a professor of the National Technical University of Athens, Stavros Stavridis4, states “[…] opportunities of architectural interventions that can actually shape and mold space that can be common. […] A common space should take the form of organized special relations, that would be supporting an area in which commoning will take place. So, on that level of design and planning can be crucial and play a very important” (California College of the Arts – CCA, 2020, 16:58).5 Placed at the heart of social political, economic and aesthetic issues, architecture enjoys a privileged position, and one that is insufficiently exploited in order to observe, and analyze transformations of the environment and the society. And by that, to contribute to the society. Societies as they are constructed by their people.

And from this perspective actually, the cooperative housing project La Borda may be described as one of the many community infrastructures, which tend to be shaped and thus form the area of Can Batlló and the larger area of the city of Barcelona. The initiatives of the architecture cooperative in Barcelona, Lacol, and their intentions of investing in the process of commoning proposed by grassroots of the neighborhood of Can Batlló, gave them the opportunity to redefine practices of commons in the architectural field, as resource, process, and result –both in local and hyperlocal level. It

is important to understand the multitude of temporalities and scales of impact by their architectural initiatives and practices, beyond the popular definition of sustainability and aesthetics. From the way they collaborate and participate to the community’s commons, to the way of how their architectural practices are shaped by them, and to how the designed infrastructures give more space and possibilities of regeneration of commons.

Since community is at the core of the conception and construction process of the housing project La Borda, and of the site of Can Batlló, it is crucial to understand firstly, the sociopolitical context that was crafted by internal and external forces during the recent history –before start unfolding the contribution of Lacol. It is important to understand who the commoners are, and how the grassroots movements prepare the field for the architectural skills.

Whengrassrootsmovements...

Can Batlló˙ a former factory complex built in the late 19th century. Nowadays, an almost-abandoned industrial site. At its high point, it housed up to 2,500 workers. In 1976, the administration of the General Metropolitan Plan (GMP) of Barcelona established that the industrial activity must cease there. Suddenly, the site from an industrial core in the south of Barcelona was supposed to transform into social housing, urban equipment, and green spaces, according to the government-led urban planning project. A project for the community. Despite of the transformation of other neighborhoods with similar sites to Can Batlló, since then, not a lot happened in the area of La Bordeta, where the site is located. The reasons vary. In general, even though there were plans for development to the site, there was no actual funding or any action taken. On the contrary, in 2006, some developers even modified the GMP in 2006 to incorporate residential use. Sadly, on top of that, the Spanish economy and housing sector have been negatively affected by the global financial crisis, since 2008. The ‘burst’ of the Spanish housing bubble increased pressure on households through the increasing unemployment. Like in the case of many occidental societies, the property system of the city of Barcelona -with long history of feudalism- was already quite privatized, making the state weak for further investments without the help from neoliberal forces, especially since the franco dictatorship from the 40s.6 Marc Dalmau Torvà7 -who was born in the area of Sants and since then lives there, the district where the site is located- reassures it, adding that Can Batlló is already affected by developments of big real estate investors. Luxurious apartment popping out “revitalizing” the area accumulating wealth by dispossession towards sociospatial enclosures in the neighborhood.8

He continues by mentioning that the site of Can Batlló that we see today -with the project of La Borda being the focal point- is a long process of crystallization of grassroots

6. The history of Spain (no date) The Franco Dictatorship. Available at: https:// historyofspain.es/en/video/thefranco-dictatorship/ (Accessed: 10 January 2023).

7. Dalmau, M. (2023) Unpublished interview conducted by Iakovos Sierifis, 11 January.

8. Dardot, P. & Laval, C., op. cit., p.135.

source: (n.d.) “CanBatllo_ Historia_01” HISTÒRIA, image, Can Batllo, Available at: https:// canbatllo.org/can-batllo/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

movements and social forces since the prohibition of the industry there. People of the area, former workers of the industry, found themselves hopeless to the state’s plans, and thus, decided to take the initiates and to squat some of the areas there, forming self-managed services, since the late 70s. The citizens started claiming what was agreed until nowadays. The proletariat community was and still certainly demands to return Can Batlló back to is people. Processes of commoning were created as a form of activism since then. In 2011, still the transformation of the site was still blocked by a real estate and the involved administration. Sick of still waiting, that year, Sants and La Bordeta neighbors entered the site –during a second wave of activism after the failed promises of the mayor to accomplish the plans for the area- and occupied a building as a community-based movement, where a participatory process initiated the community infrastructures in a self-managed way to define the uses and projects which the neighborhood wanted for Can Batlló -including the creation of La Borda. Processes of and through commons were established, and by that embracing social and solidarity economy, and as main goal to take the urbanization process on their hands.

Social movements were, and still are, seeking shelter under the help of commoning. Can Batlló is on the process to become a common space driven by the community. Commoners with motivation and common shared values and interests are willing to secure the area against gentrification with several community infrastructures. Community infrastructures, which in some cases, are quite complex for having only policymakers to materialize them. And that is the moment, where city planners and architects need to join in, in order to shape new ways of living, such as housing projects. And here it is where Lacol’s contribution takes place as people with tools and technical knowledge to help the community to materialize their needs. Community infrastructures with common spaces, and not just communal or community spaces.

The photo shows the grassroots movements after the second wave of 2011, where they celebrated in he streets of Can Batlló’s site.

The photo shows the grassroots movements trying to enter to the site of Can Batlló during the second wave of activism in 2011. Sick of still waiting, after the failed promises of the mayor to accomplish the plans for the area.

source: (n.d.) REHABITAR CAN BATLLÓ, image, Lacol, Available at: https://www.lacol.coop/ projectes/rehabitarcanbatllo/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

We need to distinguish common space from the latter ones. And by that common space should actually overspill the boundaries of even the community which somehow initiates its existence. In order to continue to evolve. Therefore, we can say that common space is a kind of production. That is why it is important to understand the common practices of Lacol as a complex of relationship with the community. The common space as the key in the design.

...meetexpertises

The collaboration between Lacol and the grassroots goes back to 2007, as Marc mentions. “They came back then as architecture students motivated and curious enough to discover what was going on at the neighborhood. They quickly formed a relationship of commitment to the neighborhood by participating in several selfmanaged activities run by the people of Can Batlló”. Fascinated and inspired by these practices of commons, after they had finished their master’s in architecture, in 2009 they formed an architectural cooperative –probably inspired by the numerous cooperatives of the district of Sants, an area with long history of cooperatives9. The reason that they formed an architectural cooperative˙ we can probably imagine it as a genuine effort with further intentions to act as team of expertise through horizontal decision-making and by sharing common values, and knowledge in a given space. Since the beginning of their career –even in an intense period of the financial crisis of 2008, especially in the construction sector- they had a common and clear objective. Cristina Gamboa10 in one of their online lecture, they mention throughout the discourse that Lacol works to generate community infrastructures for the sustainability of life, as a key tool for the social transition, through architecture, cooperativism and participation11. Even if there are not the words “commons”, or “commoning” in their position, in my perception

9. “A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is «an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democraticallycontrolled enterprise”.

source: Wikipedia Contributors (2022) Cooperative. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Cooperative#:~:text=A%20 cooperative%20%28also%20 known%20as%20cooperative%2C%20coop%2C%20or,through%20a%20 jointly%20owned%20and%20 democratically-controlled%20 enterprise%20%22 (Accessed 18 January 2023).

10. Cristina Gamboa is one of the main co-founders of the architecture cooperative under the name Lacol.

11. AA School of Architecture (2022) Community Infrastructures – Lacol. 24 January. Available at : https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q I5ebU6LW8k&list=PLI1nDzeoh fnlLq9N7x05VK12u-Sx1KP_w

(Accessed: 19 January 2023).

source: Lacol (n.d.) Lacol, image, La Comunal, Available at: https://lacomunal.coop/ projectes/lacol/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

there are strong evidences of practices of commons in their design practices, and beyond. The aim to create spaces for communities, open to social transitioning by active participation and forces of social economies. Community-oriented practices with the intention to understand the needs and entities of the different commons there.

Just a quick look on their online portfolio, it is enough to come across various of their approaches. Some of them are: temporary activation of empty spaces by participation processes organized as thematic workshops, and by community infrastructures and equipment towards commoning the space and with emphasis on the social and solidarity economy; urban studies including mapping the right to the housing and optimization of empty homes in different cities in Spain; and design and construction of affordable housing projects -especially cooperative housing projects, such as La Borda.

CommunityaskeyinDesign

12. Lacol (2013) Rehabitar Can Batlló. Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ rehabitarcanbatllo/ (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

Back to Can Batlló, year 2011. The second wave of social movements taken part. After the citizens had decided to take the urbanization in their hands, they occupy some buildings of the industrial complex. Since then, it seems that Lacol made a commitment to the community to help them in the transformation12 of some of the areas of the almost abandoned post-industrial site into a complex of community infrastructures that enables commoning to arise, helping services of social economy and solidarity to find shelter for the further development of the space. They gained their trusts through a process of mutual participation in order to be able to help them with their skills and technical knowledge.

The members of the architectural cooperative Lacol in the post-industrial site of Can Batlló.

After a few years of participation in activism in Can Batlló and general preparation after their master’s diploma they helped in the rehabilitation of the Block 1113 through a community-led process – a building that was taken by the community there as “con cesión de uso” meaning “with assignment of use” from the municipality. In other words, in 2012 community took the responsibility of the development of the building from the state, by owning the use of the land, and not the land itself. It is a kind of lease from the state. A series of commissions then, was held defining the re-activation strategy of the building and the actions to be carried out. The catalyst of the design of the infrastructures was the construction phase including collective, voluntary and self-managed work. Those aspects were the financial and conceptual limits of the final forms of the constructions. The result was: the first place that was turn into a

13. Lacol (2011) Bloconze de Can Batlló. Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ bloconze-can-batllo/ (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

Master plan proposed by Lacol for the rehabilitation of the abandoned post-industrial site of Can Batlló with spaces that encourage services of social economy and solidarity, with main objective the social sustainability of the broader neighborhood of La Bordeta and the security of its citizens from external neoliberal forces. We can point out the CHP of La Borda and the rehabilitation of the Block 11, ensuring and expanding by doing so the space of commoning in the site.

source: Lacol (n.d.) “Site plan”, La Borda / Lacol, drawing, archdaily, Available at: https:// www.archdaily.com/922184/ la-borda-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

The photos here show the construction process of the first phase of the rehabilitation of the Block 11 through practices of commons, such as community participation. Having as main ideas the outcome of mutual collaboration with the community and is technical skills as limitation, Lacol designed the infrastructures with materials that found mainly in the site.

The photo on the right top indicates the final result of this collaboration, where the space is both, a result of common practices and an infrastructure that encourages commoning to continue happening.

sources:

Photo top right and bottom: Lacol (n.d.) BLOCONZE DE CAN BATLLÓ , image, Lacol, Available at: https://www.lacol.coop/ projectes/bloconze-can-batllo/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

Photo top left: Lacol (n.d.) CONNEXIÓ VERTICAL DEL BLOCONZE, image, Lacol, Available at: https://www. lacol.coop/projectes/connexiovertical-bloconze/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

14. Lacol (2012) Connexió Vertical del Bloconze. Available at: https://www.lacol.coop/ projectes/connexio-verticalbloconze/ (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

15. Lacol (2014) Estudis Previs Per a Còopolis al Bloc 4. Available at: https://www. lacol.coop/projectes/coopolisespai-leconomia-social-progres/ (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

common space acting as the meeting place for the social movements of Sants. The success was real. After 2 years of use and expansion of needs of the commoners, Lacol materialized the expansion of space throughout the vertical connection of the block 1114. It was conceived as the central common space of that building, weaving different functions together. Except of the first part of the construction, which was carried out by a company hired by the City Council, the rest of the infrastructure was again community-led practices made by light materials –mostly wood. Block 11 then was turned into a community infrastructure, ready to expand.

The success of commoning the Block 11 is perceived by the expansion of occupation towards the Block 415, a neighboring building that the community took over by con cesión de uso in 2014. Like the Block 11, the Block 4 was reactivated by a collaboration method where main criteria to the design was the community-led

construction process and the low-budget materials. For that, light structures and reuse of existing materials were beneficial. It is important to understand that the community space here was conceived not as a central space as in the case of Block 1116, but as a scattered series of shared services of social economy ready to be expanded if needed.

0. during La Borda

Reinventinghousingthroughcommons

As perceived, Lacol was there throughout that period, being part of the communityled urban projects in the site of Can Batlló. That relation allowed them to explore and understand another perspective of their position as architects and the processes of participation, and more specifically, on how the collective works and how processes of commons can be redefined, constrained and affected by that. They go even further by mentioning that the design of those spaces there is no meaning without the people. There is no real collective space without the participation of the actual community in the making process. Moreover, the participation of Lacol in the act of resistance defined by the existing local community, allowed them to build trust with the community, and gave space to the certainty of bottom-up and non-institutionalized transformation. In that way, safe space was created through practices of commons among the different actors, affecting progressively the relation with the state, the city and the neighborhood. After some years of active community-led occupation and the forms of resistance from the citizens of those areas, Can Batlló started to become

The picture indicates the common space -during the rehabilitation of the Block 4- as a linear spatial configuration which will connect in a later phase the various services of social economy.

source: Cantos, A. (n.d.) COÒPOLIS BCN. FASE 0 , image, Lacol, Available at: https://www. lacol.coop/projectes/coopolisbcn-fase-0/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

The drawing made by Lacol shows the proposal of the full rehabilitation of the Block 4 by local services and events for the local community.

source: Lacol (n.d.) COÒPOLIS BCN. FASE 0, drawing, Lacol, Available at: https://www.lacol. coop/projectes/coopolis-bcnfase-0/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

16. Lacol (2016) Coòpolis Bcn. Fase 0. Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ coopolis-bcn-fase-0/ (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

17. Lacol (2016) Dinamització del Pla Municipal. Available at: https://www.lacol.coop/ projectes/dinamitzacio-plamunicipal/ (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

piece of the neighborhood, proving to the state that they should own the post-industrial site. To legitimize the site.

18. Lacol (2015) PLA PEL DRET A L’HABITATGE DE BARCELONA 2016-2025.Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ pla-pel-dret-lhabitatgebarcelona-2016-2025/ (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

During the rehabilitation process of the Block 11 and 4, Lacol participated in an extensive serious of community-oriented workshops17 in 2016 in the district of Sants with main objective to revitalize the general metropolitan plan of 1976 proposed by the state of that time. From a community-oriented and top-bottom plan to a bottomup and community-led approach! One of the main results of those workshops that the majority agreed on –and that Lacol was align with- was the right to housing for the citizens of Barcelona, and therefore of the proletariat community of La Bordeta. That finally led not only to the coordination of the new Plan for the Right to Housing of Barcelona 2016-202518 –a collaboration with the Celobert cooperative- but also to the awarded cooperative housing project of La Borda! It seems that the rehabilitation and the reactivation with sociocultural services were not enough to secure Can Batlló as a complex common space away from speculation of neoliberal forces. The need of socially sustainable housing was obvious. The answer to that was, and still is, “cooperativas con cesión de uso”, in other words, cooperative housing project. Another dimension of community infrastructures.

Notjustsocialhousing

19. Cambridge Business English Dictionary (no date) Cession entry. Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge. org/dictionary/english/cession (Accessed: 18 January 2023).

La Borda actually, was the first cooperative housing project in Spain in the recent history. The cooperativas con cesión de uso, in English “cession19 of cooperative use” is a non-profit and non-speculative cooperative model that aims to maintain ownership of homes throughout the time. They are not just social housing, which in that case affordable housing is offered by the state to a group of people with limited income and

Some of the members of the housing cooperative of La Borda are trying to put in the site of their future housing project a panel demonstrating their first success -and therefore the success of the broader victory of the demands of Can Batlló’s community- after the cession of the public land by the state of Barcelona to the citizens with the right of using the land.

source: world habitat awards (n.d.) La Borda, image, World Habitat Awards, Available at: https://world-habitat.org/ world-habitat-awards/winnersand-finalists/la-borda/#outline

(Accessed: 26 January 2023).

are inscribed in a waiting list. The cooperative members of cooperativas con cesión de uso can access public land thanks to an accessible right of use and, in addition, they can enjoy such use indefinitely. As a result, the citizens of La Bordeta, rather waiting for the state to provide them with affordable housing, they took the initiative to create their own! This way of accessing housing, which is gradually making its way in Spain, is inspired by German, Danish, or even Latin American models. For example, in Denmark, a third of the population has access to housing thanks to this model. In the same way those construction cooperatives – the ones in which a group of individuals are responsible for the construction of a new housing development- the cooperative housing projects (in abbreviation CHP) can build and promote a group of housing units. Unlike the former, although, the CHP is not dissolved once the construction of these houses is completed. In fact, the reason is that the cooperative members should be associated in the persistence over time after the completion of the construction of the houses that will be destined them. By doing so, the property is protected from speculation through collective ownership.

Specifically, in the case of La Borda, the members come from the area of Sants. An open call was made for whoever wanted to join, even though there was a certain capacity. The final result is a cooperative of 50 people of all ages. The members own a part of the wholesome of the housing project and not their actual units. It is a type of residential housing option, where is actually a corporation. Specifically, the owners are shareholders in the corporation based on the relative size of the unit that they live in. They have only use values, Marc explains, who participated from the beginning of the project of La Borda and who now is member in another CHP called Empriu. He continues by adding that main inspiration was a collective in Uruguay, called Fucvam.20 Actually, Lacol acknowledged the complexity of such projects. A multi-dimension entity beyond the architectural and technical aspects in close collaboration with social forces and policymakers –a group of people who will form the working cooperative La Dinamo in a later stage. They took advantage of the expertise and knowledge of social movements to innovate and materialize the new model of CHP. Both sides understood that through common practices, such as sharing knowledge as a common value, it is vital for the elaboration of such projects, laying down the “foundation” of La Borda.

DesignthroughMutualParticipation

It is now clearer, that the construction of La Borda had stared far before is conceptualization, by building strong roots to the neighborhood of La Bordeta and its surroundings to be able to defense itself as a common space for the local community by being socially resilient. “We carry out housing projects, especially cooperative, accompanying the promotion and management process in all phases of design, construction and monitoring of the life cycle. […] We promote projects beyond the limits of the building and with territorial impact, which can respond to current and

20. Federación Uruguaya de Cooperativas por Ayuda Mutua (no date) Historia. Available at: https://www.fucvam.org. uy/quienes-somos/historia (Accessed: 17 January at 2023).

commons in architecture

The practices of commons continued during the CHP of La Borda, notably during the design process, where architectural committees where organized in weekly assemblies with other members of La Borda in order to discuss and share knowledge and decisions among th broader community of La Borda. The right photo indicates an assembly of architectural committee in which Cristina, a member of Lacol, explains the result and the possibilities of the flexibilities of both the main core of the housing units and their relation to the satellite modules . In the image on the left, another important assembly of a different and importation type of committee takes place.

Source for both photos: Lacol (2019) image, Available via a privately shared web drive with license of Lacol.

21. La Comunal (no date) Lacol. Available at: https:// lacomunal.coop/projectes/ lacol/ (Accessed: 19 January 2023).

future urban challenges such as ageing, health, gender perspective […]” Lacol states in an online website21. In my understanding, it is an acknowledgment of the multitemporality of the process of commoning as part of the design: a mosaic of mutual participation and collaboration before, during and after the construction of La Borda, as well as a designed common space.

In a second phase, after Lacol had been inspired by the local initiatives, they organized a series of assemblies called architecture workshop or committee, where coop members were invited to participate and define together some aspects of La Borda’s building, such as the program, the communal and common spaces, the housing units. Actually, it was not the only commission, but there were several ones. Each one was responsible for defining different aspects of the CHP with people in charge who were specialized in the concerned subject. Each organizing member of every of these assemblies has to participate in the other ones, sharing among them the knowledge collected and the decisions taken. A well-defined structure that helped the project evolved throughout its design and construction process. Therefore, members of Lacol participated in assemblies, which were not necessarily connected directly to architecture. Indeed, La Borda and Lacol, both of them had mutually created an open structure beyond its physical limits. A common platform, where information was in a continuous exchange through collaboration and mutual participation during the definition, and by thus making each group more aware and sensitive to the others. Maybe this is one of the aspects that cannot be perceived directly by its final product, but it is vital for the elaboration of the project as a design and construction process.

A strong example of this kind of mutual participation that led to an innovating solution was the spatial configuration of the 28 housing units. A complex of housing units of different typological variations of 40, 55 and 70 square meters. Almost all of

Iakovos

source: Lacol (n.d.) La Borda in Barcelona von Lacol, drawing, Detail, Available at: https://www. detail.de/de/de_de/la-borda-inbarcelona-von-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

them more or less, they are articulated, designed and constructed in such way where individual personalization, and community evolution can be flexible. Starting by the core of the units˙ it is the result of collaborative process among some members of Lacol and La Borda, where current users expressed their opinion on how they will like the arrangement of those immovable facilities, such as kitchen. The core was defined in such way in order to give as much as possible free space to be appropriated by the residents –another aspect of the common space, which consider it as a flexible sociospatial structure that allows its users to appropriate and transform it. This intention was encouraged and forced by the idea of giving to the residents the possibility and the tools to add some extra no-loaded CLT panels for room separation. This idea of allowing future modifications of room’s area in autonomous way, actually, goes even further. La Borda –through the help of La Dinamo- managed to ensure legally the spatial modifications among every two units by the exchange of modules –or how Lacol

Floor plan of the 3rd and 4th floor of the CHP of La Borda, Lacol.

Diagrams of the main modules of the housing units of the CHP of La Borda. They indicate the flexibility and modularity of their main core, the kitchen, whilst having enough free space to be appropriated by the future residents, and therefore be personalized.

Diagrams of the different spaces that the housing modules are assembled by. The main modules in green color and the satellite modules in yellow, situated in-between every pair of housing units. They visualize the future possibility of expansion or exchange of one of these satellite modules between the future co-residents. At the same time the spatial configurations resulting with different sizes, giving the flexibility to the families of La Borda, in any case of possible changes.

source: Lacol (n.d.) LA BORDA HABITATGE COOPERATIU, drawing, Lacol, Available at: https://www.lacol.coop/ projectes/laborda/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

Left photo: The kitchen of one of the housing units in the CHP of L Borda.

source: Miralpeix, A. (2020) image, Available via to a privately shared web drive with license of Lacol.

Right photo: The construction phase of one of the housing units of the CHP of La Borda.

source: Lacol (2019) image, Available via a privately shared web drive with license of Lacol.

calls them satellite modules. In detail, in every floor the units are separated into pairs where satellite modules are introduced in-between the main ones of each of the units. In case of change in a household instead of changing unit, or even moving to a new building, residents can agree to give or take a satellitemodule. This is facilitated by the chosen structure of CLT building panels, where their modularity gives the flexibility of changing or introducing an opening on one of these walls, even after the construction site of La Borda. In this way La Borda, for once again, it is perceived as a big family of cooperative members. It can be described as a genius idea, where collaborative housing project is rediscovered and redefined by its own residents, securing common space throughout the time to the scale of the private units.

It is worth to mention, that alike the aforementioned community infrastructures designed by Lacol for the community of Can Batlló, such as the Block 4 and Block 11, La Borda in its majority was realized by construction experts and technicians. A participation in the construction process was allowed, intentionally or not, only in the communal spaces, and specifically for the meeting point on the ground floor. It is the result of community participation in the construction process, letting the members of La Borda to define and creating more easily connections with their future habitat. The reasons, which didn’t give the potential for a further community participation in the construction process, were probably that La Borda had not yet developed their practices in such way to enable participation to take place in a bigger scale.

Nevertheless, having in mind such a complexity of sociospatial relations and configurations among the city makers and local community, taking in consideration the final step of the construction phases all the way back to the initiatives of the grassroots movement of the site of Can Batlló, we should be now more acknowledge about the multiplicity of common space and commoning process. It is worth to mention again, that Lacol, during their active participation in the area of La Bordeta, understood La Borda as a community within the community. We can perceive it as a community infrastructure, both as a wholesome and as a part of a bigger ecology. An autonomous entity which has its own values and relations with the surroundings.

Commonspaceatthescaleofthehouse

Year 2019, La Borda is finally built. Three years later, and its own residents have already appropriated and been integrated in the space. Us, as pedestrians in the south-west area from the center of the city of Barcelona, walking down the street “Carrer de la Constitució”, we can identify a discontinuation of the architectural and urban vocabulary of that street. The building of La Borda, from the outside, doesn’t seem a regular housing project, maybe not even a building with housing function as its main program. A cold, sort of introvert façade, that creates intentionally both distance and intimacy against the publicness of that street. The result is that it allows the

source: Akazawa, B. (2021)

La Borda in Barcelona von Lacol, image, Detail, Available at: https://www.detail.de/de/ de_de/la-borda-in-barcelonavon-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

pedestrians to visually and physically connect with it only on the level of the street, and then, as higher we look it gets more semi-private up to the top floors where optical connection is not even possible, showing to the outside spectators the introvert character of the community and the project of La Borda. But does that go against the idea of commons -when common space is considered as an open structure to new users to interact with it?

The north facade of the CHP of La Borda facing the main street, creating a form of limit-barrier to thee site of Can Batlló -it can be found just on the other side of La Borda.

Following the high-ceiling concrete columns of that façade, the stilt guides physically and visually to the backyard of the building, introducing us not only to the heart of that building block but also to the site of Can Batlló. The façade encountered there, is covered mostly by light materials, such as wood and metal, having at the same time more transparent relation on the ground floor. By that, it creates an overall feeling of an intentionally warmer and softer facade in comparison with the other one, creating an irregularity to the idea of having the main façade as the one that refers to the street. But here, it is the opposite case. With that gesture, it feels that the community of the cooperative of La Borda is expanded and physically connected to the rest of the community of Can Batlló, showing its extrovert character and how they want to share commons, across that common land.

The south facade of the CHP of La Borda facing the main area, the heart, of Can Batlló’s site. source: Lacol (2019) LABORDA HABITATGE COOPERATIU, image, Lacol, Available at: https://www. lacol.coop/projectes/laborda/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

22. As Stavros Stavridis in his online lecture explains “That is why I try to insist that the common space should be threshold is an intermediate, is an in-between area in which negotiations take place.”

Source: California College of the Arts – CCA, op. cit., 14:40.

The central area of the CHP of La Borda. At the same time, the and the reference point of the residents of La Borda. The access, not only to the communal spaces of the ground floor, but also to the housing units on the upper floors. Facing the south towards the main site of Can Batlló, there is a direct optical connection and physical one through the communal spaces there.

source: Miralles, L. (2019) La Borda, image, Lluc Miralles Photography, Available at: https://llucmiralles.com/ Cooperativa-d-habitatge-LaBorda-LaCol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

Having so far, in mind just the two façades, the spectator as an outsider of the general project of La Borda, receives a message, or maybe a statement, from the cooperative of what is community for them. From the street side, La Borda creates a semi-transparent barrier between the Can Batlló and the broader neighborhood of La Bordeta, protecting the first one. A balance between introvert and extrovert. Between micro-community and macro-community. It is important to understand how crucial is the location of the project in relation to the further Can Batlló’s site. Being located along one of the limits of the site of Can Batlló, a sort of threshold22 is created

The social life of the coresidents of the CHP of La Borda in the patio, the central space where communal spaces come across, encouraging social interaction and processes of commoning to happen. The space shown in the image is the result of residents’ participation during its construction, but as well as of the appropriation and personalization of months of usage.

source: La Borda (n.d.) Vida en comu, image, La Borda, Available at: http://www.laborda.coop/ ca/projecte/vida-comunitaria/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

The communal areas at the ground floor of the CHP of La Borda. The community kitchen and living room have a direct view and physical access to the main area, the heart, of Can Batlló’s community, expanding the limits of Borda as just a collaboration housing project. It is more than that. It is the threshold between two communities: the microcommunity of La Borda and the macro-community of Can Batlló. A space of commons. A space of commons, where social interactions are encouraged.

source: Valdecantos, A. (2021) image, Available via a privately shared web drive with license of Lacol.

Floor plan of the ground floor of the CHP of La Borda, Lacol.

source: Lacol (n.d.) La Borda in Barcelona von Lacol, drawing, Detail, Available at: https://www. detail.de/de/de_de/la-borda-inbarcelona-von-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

During the first day of visits of the 48 Hours Open House in Barcelona, visitors were able to enter and visit the various spaces of the CHP of La Borda. source: Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona (2020) La Borda in Barcelona von Lacol, image, Detail, Available at: https://www. detail.de/de/de_de/la-borda-inbarcelona-von-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

between the local community and broader one. Like other common spaces, La Borda act as an intermediary space, in which negotiations take place.

After entering the building, we find ourselves in the central courtyard -the heart of the building. It is strongly surrounded by community spaces through the different floors, enabling social interactions among the members. By doing that so, that indoor atrium becomes a reference point for the users and the facilities of the cooperative housing. It is important here, to understand that Lacol probably understands through the process of commoning the importance of the role of maintenance and the presence of common interests to the evolution and perennity of commons. An example of this, is the choice of position of communal spaces, and their in-between connections and relations. Likewise, in Block 4 there is the idea of having a central space that enables social interactions. A different arrangement of spaces than in Block 11, where there, a sequence of different facilities-rooms is benefited for different reasons.

As mentioned before, La Borda as cooperative housing project, it is more than a social housing project. The distinction is made obvious by the strong presence of community spaces on the ground floor, such as communal kitchen, dining and living room, situated to the south of the project. It seems that this decision was not meant necessarily to benefit from the sun, but probably to connect to the broader community of the post-industrial site. An active connecting link between the community of La Borda and the other ones that forms the Can Batlló area.

It is worth to mention here that a community space, or more in general communal space, is not necessarily a common space, where commoning process takes place. It is important to understand the difference between the two groups. The homogeneity of the community of La Borda set limits of the process of commons. But that doesn’t mean necessarily that has negative impact on the broader site.

On the contrary, it seems that for La Borda, community is in the center of the project. Communal spaces are expanded on the first floor and spread all the way up to the fifth floor. Precisely, the first floor was chosen to host the washing machine facilities, where the members can share, not only the machines, but also the chance to meet and socialize, either in the laundry room, or at its extension -an open-double ceiling space between the atrium and the public street. A gentle gesture, where we can perceive as a step back from the openness and loudness of the street, letting the cooperative to choose if they want a visual connection to the neighboring buildings

Floor plan of the 1st floor of the CHP of La Borda, Lacol. source: Lacol (n.d.) LA BORDA HABITATGE COOPERATIU, drawing, Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ laborda/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

The interior facades of the CHP of La Borda facing all towards the central point where the patio is forming a reference point for the co-residents. At the same time, the corridors, a kind of threshold between he private life inside the housing units and the publicness of the patio and its communal spaces. A reference to corralas.

source: Miralles, L. (2019) La Borda, image, Lluc Miralles Photography, Available at: https://llucmiralles.com/ Cooperativa-d-habitatge-LaBorda-LaCol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

without exposing their selves physically from the main street. If we assume that that was the intention of La Borda, then in the same logic, it can be perceived as the main reason that the housing units on the north façade start two floors higher than they start on the south façade. This is not necessarily against the idea of the commons, since the community as an entity decides on how, when and where to give and have interaction with the further, “exterior” community.

It is crucial to understand the connecting link between private and public life. The distribution infrastructure that connects the units among the different floors, the corridor, is one of the key elements of the embracement of social life through

La Borda. Their sociospatial attributes brings references to the traditional corralas -a typical housing building in Madrid, in Spain- where the corridors are part of the core facades. Similar to the corralas, an internal and central reference point is created for the community of La Borda, where members can interact, socialize, or even negotiate their processes of commoning, such as living together and sharing communal services. This idea is expanded towards each pair of housing units, by stretching the corridor towards them, which finally acts as a threshold between corridor’s social life and intimacy of every two housing units.

+1. after La Borda

More than an architectural result

Even though, it is not perceived as a direct link to the process of commoning in the practices of Lacol, sustainability has been playing a significant role in the project of La Borda. In other words, it helped in the establishment of essential conditions for accessible housing to the community. One aspect of this, is the group of elements and techniques of bioclimatic design integrated by Lacol, such as the mechanical roof system and the role of natural light –it is expected in the long term that it will save them money from different electrical facilities, and therefore reduce the cost of living. But more important here, it might be the common laundry, where the members of La Borda are called to use the space sparingly. An intention of maintenance and

The corralas, the inspiration of Lacol for the CHp of La Borda. Likewise, the traditional corralas originated in the city of Madrid promotes social interactions between the residents of the building, not only the ones of each floor, but also vertically connecting the different floors. The example in the image is The Corral del Coliseo.

source: Ríos, B. (2005) The corralas of Madrid: a symbol of popular housing, Geografia Infinita, Available at: https://www.geografiainfinita. com/2020/09/las-corralasmadrilenas-un-simbolo-de-lavivienda-popular/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

source: Valdecantos, A. (2021) The Architecture of Cooperation, image, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Available at: https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/ articles/issues/28/with-andwithin/78781/the-architectureof-cooperation (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

to take care of La Borda, both the building and the community. And by doing that, the designers are not meant to impose a model of living to the users. It’s more as an outcome of processes of collaboration and community-led practices.

As an overall, La Borda -the first housing cooperative built so far in Barcelona- was formed as a housing solution for a group of locals looking for affordable and decent housing, where the community is in the center, and based on the principles and values of social economy and solidarity, and community integration. It can be perceived as a miniature of the site of Can Batlló. Lacol managed to compressed most of the needs and the larger goals of the neighborhood into the scale of the housing project. And that is why, La Borda is more than a final architectural result. It is between new way of living together, creating social bonds, and organizing daily life to share care work and domestic life. But also, it is an intergenerational dwelling, securing itself as common space where the legal and physical infrastructure allows the community of La Borda to involve and persist throughout the time. In other words, La Borda cannot and should not be seen as a common space in the same way as the Block 4 or Block 11 do, where different people from the community of La Bordeta gather to help and interact with each other. It is reduced down to a smaller community, the family of La Borda, where the wholesome of its members consider themselves as a big family ready to take care of the space and of its residents –with the possibility of those to change over time. That is why, once again, a naive description made by only its architectural definition is not enough. But, it must be certainly described, by the relation between Lacol and the community before, during and after the development process. A process of commons and collaboration through housing activism, community infrastructures, and broader sustainability that it continues even today.

As in many collaborative housing projects, two members of the architecture cooperative Lacol are also residents in La Borda, and therefore members in the

The office of the architectural cooperative Lacol in the multidisciplinary and intercooperative workspace of La Comunal.

concerning cooperative. That was probably crucial to get to know better the rest of the community of La Borda and the neighborhood of La Bordeta by taking advantage of the proximity. Possibly, a choice with even political extensions of living within the social movement that initiated the project, as well as a critical practice of testing out the possibilities and limits of the structure itself. A continuous procss of identifying challenges, lessons and limitations to overcome potential problems in the future of the project -or maybe for future projects.

It is true that Lacol wants to continue collecting data -even after their first experiences in community participation, social sustainable infrastructures, and processes of commoning in almost all the phases of the promotion, design and construction of La Borda- in order to create a common platform where information is gathered not only about how much energy is spent in the residential building of La Borda, but also, to create a legal, social, and structural framework towards a possible replication. Even though, as a self-managed project, which was a long and tiring process -because of the collectively made decisions23- they want to standardize their architectural practices -if possible. Towards more projects like La Borda, across not only the site of Can Batlló, but also in the broader metropolitan area of Barcelona, and so to reassure their sustainability against neoliberal practices. A systemization of their architectural practices and beyond, in order to generate tools and resources, making this housing model more popular and accessible to others with further goal: the right to the housing.

Practicingamongothers

After having realized the power of common and shared knowledge as a foundation of innovating projects, such as La Borda, which are mostly feasible through the forces of social economy and solidarity, Lacol acknowledge how crucial and necessary is to create a multidisciplinary platform where intersectional information is gathered and shared. Consequently, they have created, with local activists with long history in Can Batlló and practices of commons, a foundation called La Dinamo24 -where Marc is one of the co-founders. A working cooperation, where its main role includes the provision of financial and organizational support, and the promotion of the model of CHP -knowledge and experience that was gathered through La Borda. A multidisciplinary collaboration between technical knowledge and policymaker’s expertise. A continuous regeneration of common resources and motivation that goes back to 2008, when the former architectural students of nowadays architecture cooperative Lacol first arrived at the Can Batlló’s site and community.

Having in mind the Block 4, the central point of the site of Can Batlló for the moment, where the community meets, celebrates and discusses different issues, Lacol with Dinamo, and other necessary working cooperations of the social economy got inspired

23. Lacol won the bronze metal award of World Habitat Awards in 2019. In the summary of their winning project, La Borda, they explain the barriers encountered during the process of the realization of the CHP La Borda.

Source: World Habitat Awards (2019) La Borda, cooperativa de vivienda en cesión de uso, Spain. Available at: https:// world-habitat.org/wp-content/ uploads/2019/11/La-Borda_ Spain_FULL-Project-Summary. pdf (Accessed: 20 January 2023).

24. Lacol (no date) La Dinamo Available at: https://www.lacol. coop/projectes/la-dinamo/ (Accessed: 19 January 2023).

Floor plan of the ground floor of the inter-cooperative workspace of La Comunal.

source: Lacol (n.d.) LA COMUNAL ESPAI COOPERATIU, drawing, Lacol, Available at: https://www.lacol.coop/ projectes/lacomunal/ (Aaccessed: 26 January 2023).

Some of the member of the different working cooperations ,housed in the inter-cooperative workspace of la Comunal. The actors of th different services of social economy and solidarity share the patio of La comunal as a common space.

source: La Comunal (n.d.) QUI SOM, image, La Comunal, Available at: https://lacomunal. coop/la-comunal-sants/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

25. «La Comunal is a cooperative cultural space born from the alliance between different projects of the social and solidarity economy, in order to pool capacities and powers, strengthen the intercooperative ties with each other and multiply, thus, the scope and community impact of the transformative socio-economic practices carried out by its members. It is made up of seven work cooperatives and an association.”

Source: La Comunal (no date) Who we are. Available at: https://lacomunal.coop/lacomunal-sants/ (Accessed at: 17 January 2023).

by, and so they created La Comunal25 in 2019 -right after the accomplishment of La Borda. A sociocultural service cooperative and workspace with main objective the promotion of alternative daily practices to the capitalist and neoliberal economic. It is located in the district of Sants not far from the neighborhood of Cana Batlló. The final result of the building of La Comunal is a result of the rehabilitation of an old textile industry and an addition of a new volume, creating by that an atrium. This central space acts as a reference point for the different member of the cooperations there, bringing

references to the atrium of La Borda. This common space is surrounded by a number of communal spaces on the ground floor, such as kitchen and chilling room, reinforcing the idea of social interactions. Lacol, not only benefits from the proximity of sharing knowledge and technical support beyond their expertise by the other cooperations, but also shares occasionally experiences and moments with locals who come to use the co-working space on the ground floor in the new volume. A conscious intention of the members of La Comunal to give space to the local community to interact with and collaborate, while sharing resources. Although, community participation or selfconstruction are not mentioned in the construction process, La Comunal is a result of architectural practices and choices of Lacol which are clearly influenced of common practices. Those are strongly perceived not so much in the choice of materials and general aesthetics of the building complex, but rather in the sociospatial configuration and the complexity of its use and chosen program. Another common infrastructure, aiming to achieve urban commons.

The success of this collaboration is still in progress with more upcoming CHP on the way to be designed, promoted, and constructed. As mentioned before, Lacol is willing to replicate this model of housing, making it more accessible and sustainable to more people that they need it, in Can Batlló and beyond. Some of the future projects in the site of Can Batlló are Sotrac and Empriu, two cooperatives con cesión de uso, which were created from the surplus members of the inscription list for the CHP of La Borda –since capacity was limited. The question that arises here is: Is Lacol capable to regenerate not only the processes of commoning that have taken place through the definition and construction of La Borda, but also the housing dwellings as final infrastructures with similar common and/or communal spaces?

View from the patio of the intercooperative workspace of La Comunal towards the co-working space occasionally dedicated to the locals needs (such as conferences, events, etc.), who are welcomed to come and use it. A conscious intention of the members of La Comunal to give space to the local community to interact with and collaborate, while sharing resources. At the sasme time, there is a strong visual and strong connection between the interior spaces and the patio, enforcing its centrality.

source: Valdecantos, A. (n.d.) LA COMUNAL ESPAI COOPERATIU, image,Lacol, Available at: https://www.lacol. coop/projectes/lacomunal/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

26. La Dinamo (2020) Sotrac. Available at: https:// ladinamofundacio.org/project/ sotrac/ (Accessed: 10 January 2023).

Towardsreplication

In the case of Sotrac26, due to the online access to the documents of its first proposal drawings and renders, we are more in position to compare Sotrac as a sociospatial configurations in relation to its protocol model, La Borda. Some of the elements that made La Borda to stand out as innovative final project are: the atrium, the communal spaces, the corridor, the relation to the Can Batlló site and the broader neighborhood of La Bordeta, and the housing units.

More in details, it seems that the project of Sotrac will have three facades, making it a bit more extrovert than in the case of La Borda. Evidence to that, it is also the reduced size of the atrium here, reducing its centrality as a reference point for the future community of Sotrac. Therefore, the corridor, which is the intermediate space between the atrium and the housing units, is not anymore a central distribution but more as linear infrastructure –not resembling so much to the reference to the traditional corralas. Moreover, the intimacy of the housing units is in direct contact with the publicness of the corridor, since there is no relevant space which acts as a threshold in each pair of units -like in the case of La Borda. Despite the lack of centrality, Sotrac seems to have enough of communal space, both on the ground floor and the fifth floor. Although, those community spaces have no longer optical connection between them. Questions such as maintenance are arisen here, especially for the space on the fifth floor. The success in the project of La Borda is that all communal spaces are physically and visibly accessible bringing more social awareness and feeling of domestic care among the community. Similar to La Borda, the local commercial facility is closer to the public street (main façade), giving to the ground floor’s communal services more

The floor plan of the

of the

source: Lacol (n.d.) SOTRAC HABITATGE COOPERATIU [EN PROGRÉS], drawing, Lacol, Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ sotrac-habitatge-cooperatiu/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

5th floor

CHp of Sotrac, Lacol.

A rendered image, showing the atrium of the future CHP of Sotrac, with the some of the housing units facing to it.

source: Lacol (n.d.) SOTRAC HABITATGE COOPERATIU [EN PROGRÉS], image, Lacol, Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ sotrac-habitatge-cooperatiu/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

space towards the other two facades, creating direct connection to the community of Can Batlló. And by that, defining for them the relations between the micro-community of Sotrac and the macro-community of Can Batlló and La Bordeta.

In addition, the relation between the number and the surface of the housing units here is denser than La Borda –and to be precise, from 28 units in La Borda to 38 here. Probably the result of a compromise between the city’s regulation and the successful standardization of the housing unit to the needs of the community. What is interesting though here, is the flexibility of the limits of each unit, making it capable to be expanded towards a neighboring one in case of change in the situation of the members, like in La Borda. Marc an active member of La Dinamo –responsible for the promotion and financial and technical support for CHP- reassures that. He adds that “New forms of living are created to cover the needs of the people and to make it more accessible”. He mentions that “Internationality is one of the main keys. In case that a child in the future wants to have a bigger room or their own housing unit with their own family, they can exchange units between the different ones of Sotrac, or even among members in other CHP in Can Batlló!” Sotrac is a community infrastructure that will act as a node in a bigger network of social economy, regenerating common space by giving the opportunity to the community to welcome other commoners beyond the scale of the CHP.

The community of Can Batlló managed in 2021 to take one more plot in the postindustrial area from the Barcelona City Council with the same process of land use rights. Empriu27 will therefore be the third housing cooperative in Can Batlló, joining La Borda and Sotrac. And for its realization is responsible, once again, the architectural cooperative Lacol.

Despite of the lack of online documents for the first proposal from Lacol for the CHP

27. La Dinamo (2021) Empriu. Available at: https:// ladinamofundacio.org/project/ empriu/ (Accessed: 10 January 2023).

28. «This was not the case with the collaborative housing projects they did afterwards. They were involved in this purely professionally and only participated in a few meetings. In addition, they spent more time on La Borda as it was the first project of its kind, and they lacked the experience and expertise. They eventually learned a lot through trial and error. For example, they regret the large degree of selfconstruction and that they have not engaged a single contractor.”

Source: Czischke, D. (2022) “The role(s) of the architect in collaborative housing”, Co-Lab Research. Accessible at: https:// co-lab-research.net/tag/livingtogether/ (Accessed at: 12 January 2023).

of Empriu, I had the chance to have some insight to the behind-the-scenes process from the side of the future residents. Mr. Marc as member of Empriu and future resident –who has been present through the project of La Borda and who now is an active member of La Dinamo- explains that there are problems of the financing of the project and the bureaucracy of Barcelona and Catalonia. “Like the case of Sotrac, we had to increase the number of housing units by 14. There are still gaps in the legislator system. On top of that, there is not so much financial support for the development of the project and its construction”, he explains.

Later, he reassures that Lacol participates in their assemblies as they did in La Borda but less frequently. “There is an architecture committee but now they want to make their practices of collaboration and processes with cooperatives like us more professionalized”. He continues by adding that Lacol wants to reduce cost by developing techniques which promote more self-construction during the construction process of the building. One reason, the financial aspect. Maybe, another reason, is that the community participation in the construction process as common space creates bonds and better integrality in the future dwelling. It is true that challenges during La Borda’s construction, including allocation of the apartments, intense work periods with high stress levels, and negotiations with external organizations took place. Although, Darinka criticize the practices of Lacol in their online article called “The role(s) of the architect in collaborative housing”28, mentioning that the architectural cooperative attended less mutual participation with Empriu.

Questions are arising here, though. Is the more-than-10-years collaboration of Lacol with Can Batlló, enough to replace any future possible architectural committees with new cooperative of the community there? Can they regenerate responsible community infrastructures genuine to the needs and identity to the future residents with less collaboration? Is the interdisciplinary information and expertise gathered in their workspace La Comunal replacing the community participation with each of the future CHP?

No matter what the answer is, one thing is clear: Can Batlló is being progressively reclaimed back by its citizens. La Borda’s catalytic role to that cannot be questioned. Their contribution to processes of commoning and materialization of the demands of housing activism from the early stage up to now are significant. Although, nowadays, the surrounding area of Can Batlló counts more than 500 luxury apartments, which are threatening the sustainability of the post-industrial site. A contradiction between locals that are seeking for decent housing and rich people with no connection to the area and its history, as Marc worries about. Are the neoliberal practices will progressively engulf more and more plots of Can Batlló, leaving for the proletariat community only some scattered leftovers? The safety of common space that La Borda shared among other commoners-citizens for developing together processes and infrastructures of commoning is under constant threat and evolution.

Whenexperiencebecomes asourceofinspirationforothers

On the contrary, the architectural success that Lacol received mostly by the realization of the CHP of La Borda is beyond the limits of the district Sants. La Borda became a reference point, not only for several group of citizens willing to form and construct their own cooperative -such as La Morada, a housing cooperative project far away from the district of Sants- but also for a number of public administrations interested in replicating co-operative initiatives based on the model of cession of cooperative use (CHP). At the same time, it seems that they support other practitioners and city planners, transferring knowledge and experience -both procedural and technical- to them and to other projects in the larger area of the metropolitan city of Barcelona –including conferences, lectures, guide books, and research books. The continuation of commons, from hard skills and in-situ knowledge to the replication of the outcome as a common share platform. Despite the seemingly reduced action in Can Batlló, they put effort to replicate the CHP spreading their knowledge gained by their practices involved during Can Batlló!

Summer 2023, London. The LFA, London Festival of Architecture, proposes for this year festival’s theme: In Common. A festival full of workshops and discussions around architecture to test and promote new ideas. This allows to rethink how we create, reclaim, maintain and govern the city of London, to create a city which is truly open, accessible and safe to all, by looking specifically at what connects the people and what doesn’t.

Rendered image , showing one of the main facades of the future CHP of La Morada. A housing cooperative in he city of Barcelona, far from the community and the site of Ca Batlló, but still inspired by them and the practices of the architectural cooperative Lacol. source: Lacol (n.d.) LA MORADA HABITATGE COOPERATIU [EN PROGRÉS], image, Lacol, Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ morada-habitatge-cooperatiu/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

Rendered image , showing the interior facades of the future CHP of La Morada. With inspiration of the CHP of La Borda and the traditional corralas, the housing unit are facing towards the patio, creating a reference point for the community, and embracing social interactions.

source: Lacol (n.d.) LA MORADA HABITATGE COOPERATIU [EN PROGRÉS], image, Lacol, Available at: https:// www.lacol.coop/projectes/ morada-habitatge-cooperatiu/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

It seems that the architecture scene started to get overwhelming of ideologies and processes of commoning. But it just the beginning! As Lacol have shown through their empirical experiences, commoning, both as a process and as an outcome, is a long path that demands motivation and community participation. Not only, participation of the community, but also and most important participation in the community. In the community’s struggles, cultural customs, social needs and patterns, political activities, and activism. In order for the architect to be integrated in their community, and so then he architect to integrate the community into the final infrastructure that the architect design for them –and why not with them. As La Borda has proved, it is a long process of construction of an ecology of community infrastructures and common space that starts long before the design process. Because common space, like a threshold, invites people from different perspectives to interact, communicate, discuss, and therefore develop together new ideas. Ideas though, that comes from real needs, such as the threats of neoliberal practices which citizens around Europe experience more and more, like Can Batlló’s community in Barcelona.

However, in the recent decades, Lacol’s contribution to the practices of commons in Can Batlló’s neighborhood is not the only example of commoning in the architecture field. There are several projects, which were designed from locals’ initiatives and/or with community participation across Europe. A spectrum of different cases, where architects are co-designer, co-creator, or even co-resident. What makes Lacol so different though, is their contribution in all these phases –at least in the community infrastructures of the Block 4, the Block 11, and the CHP of La Borda- which enabled them, not only to develop an architectural vocabulary that encourages regeneration of commons through social interaction, maintenance, and domestic care –such as corridors, atrium, communal spaces for the micro and macro community- but also to bring more awareness to the architectural community -and city planners and beyondof the metropolitan area of Barcelona in order to replicate their practices as solution to several communities’ needs. And by doing that, the designers are not meant to impose a model of living to the users. It’s more as an outcome of processes of collaboration and community-led practices.

Although it seems that their participation is different and that future projects have different characteristics than the first projects offered in Can Batlló, the reason may be the amount of responsibilities and complexities that arise with and thus limit their intentions. It also may be the threat from the neoliberal market which respond to the city’s needs faster, and with a more conventional way to the city’s regulations and funding.

It is acceptable that their practices are still evolving because of the acknowledgment that commoning is in constant shape since diverse communities have various needs in different times and spaces. Are others going to follow, enriching the practices not only of Lacol, but also of Can Batlló? Can it become the norm where common space is the catalyst in the design? The presence of communities in the center of the design and the process feel vital.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Marc Dalmau Torvà for their contribution to the knowledge of the history of Can Batlló’s community actions and the process of realization of the cooperative housing projects of Empriu and La Borda, as well as the architectural cooperative Lacol for the access to their documents for the latter project. I particularly wish to thank Jean-Didier Bergiliez and Vincent Brunetta for their help and their pertinent suggestions during the writing of this article.

Reference list

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