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———. 1998. A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action:
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(4): 8–21.
Ostrom, Elinor, Roy Gardner, and James Walker. 2008. Rules, Games, and Common-Pool
Resources. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Simondon, Gilbert. [1958] 2017. On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects. Trans.
C. Malaspina and J. Rogove. Minneapolis: Univocal.
———. [2005] 2020. Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information. Trans. T. Adkins.
Minneapolis: Univocal.
Sohn, Heidi, Stavros Kousoulas, and Gerhard Bruyns. 2015. Introduction: Commoning as
Differentiated Publicness. Footprint 16 (1): 1–8.
Stavrides, Stavros. 2016. Common Space: The City as Commons. London: Zed Books.
Stiegler, Bernard. [1994] 1998. Technics and Time 1: The Fault of Epimetheus. Trans.
R. Beardsworth and G. Collins. Stanford California: Stanford University Press.
G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/21621971-250514183218-7c3460b9/85/Design-Commons-Practices-Processes-And-Crossovers-Gerhard-Bruyns-33-320.jpg)
![27
It was something strongly relational, an affectionate entanglement with some
rare agency.
The material-human formation was generated by a mutual love between artists
and theater that has gone on for decades. When endangered, this relation provoked
the immediate attachment of more bodies in solidarity, caring and loving bodies,
intelligent bodies, human and more-than-human bodies (in association with techno-
logical equipment). We witnessed more than 2 years of resistance in the name of
love, in the name of care, of freedom, of emancipation, of feeling alive. We met the
spirits of our ancestors and the voices of our future grandchildren. We felt pieces
tearing down from our souls when the theater was ripped apart.10
The debate on the fate of the building was characterized by all kinds of fluctua-
tions. The politicians in power tried to denigrate it, to annihilate it. They tried to
identify it as a one thing, but they knew it was more than one.11
The collective
material-human formation kept on reconfiguring itself. “Unë jam Teatri” – “I am the
theater” – was the motto of the initial campaign that attracted numerous citizens to
identify themselves with the theater, with its struggle and its power; a resistance that
transversally made room for the individual and the collective. Political parties,
agents, and other organizations infiltrated to make use of the moment for their own
political interest.12
Despite persistent attempts to annex it, the marvelous entangle-
ment remained a multi, fairly autonomous, without converging into a one (Hardt
and Negri 2004). It demonstrated a rising belief in the power of self-organization,
while becoming an emblem of the struggles that organizing has in society as such.
This made this material-human formation a multitude, with its strengths and weak-
nesses. Without a strong and confined identity, as politically queer as it can be, it
became a place of multiple affiliations: born as fascist, appropriated by the com-
munists, a temporary colonial elitist entity, claimed and taken over by the people,
the first house of Albanology, the womb of Albanian art, a theater of the people, an
open door for all coming from the street, a place of retreat, used and abused, loved
Juliana Emiri and Neritan Liçaj shouting out from the roof that this is an installation of a
dictatorship.
Komani and Musai (2020).
10
Mehdi Malkaj, well-known actor: “The theater was not demolished, it was ripped apart!”
Report TV. 2020. I përlotur aktori Mehdi Malkaj: Populli është në gjumë, hienat e shembën
Teatrin[cited2020October12].Availablefromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNjzK0SXEdk
11
The attempt to identify the protest as pertaining to the opposition party, was with the purpose of
reducing the discourse into a polarized discussion of position-opposition. The opposition parties
did support the resistance, and they took extensive room for their own rhetoric, but the resistance
still remained plural, multiple, compound of a varied political spectrum.
12
Romeo Kodra, Albanian artist, expresses in his blog the frustration of participating in these pro-
tests, like the one for the theater, because of the penetration of these forces that try to absorb the
movement imposing their own political agenda, attempting to give it a one identity-profile, there-
fore limiting the potential of these emancipatory moments to contribute for the democratization of
the society.
Kodra (2020).
2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/21621971-250514183218-7c3460b9/85/Design-Commons-Practices-Processes-And-Crossovers-Gerhard-Bruyns-43-320.jpg)
![37
front of a public, to experiment with acting on the stage themselves. The theater
became their place of becoming and entanglement with others and the building.27
Beyond the physicality of the building, its aesthetics, its form, there is an array
of historical practices, techniques, research, debates, exchanges, transportations,
labor, and power relations that are embedded in its materiality (Thomas 2007). The
recognition of these social and material practices that have made the building come
to life, to then be appropriated and transformed, is substantial to avoid its fetishiza-
tion. Matter is loaded with memory and at the same time has knowledge embodied
in it. Crucial to the discourse is the need to read stories that matter has to tell, and to
craft a new material language.
The theater building came to life in the times of Italian autarky, when there was
a heated debate and experimentation on the techniques and materials to be used to
glorify the image of the Italian Fascist era and at the same time to satisfy the ambi-
tion for self-sufficiency (Avilés 2009; Menghini 2013). The theater is one of a series
of buildings erected at the same period in Tirana, while it simultaneously was differ-
ent from its coevals because of its experimental construction technique and lack of
monumentality. The Italian presence in giving a modern Western face to Tirana has
been extensively discussed (Gismondi 2012). The monumental buildings were
adopted during the post-war socialist regime, although they represented the oppo-
site ideology. Both regimes, fascist and state-socialist, had monumentality and self-
sufficiency as their central concern (Mëhilli 2017). The struggle to find construction
techniques that would respond to these ambitions is also a common characteristic.
Populit, an ecological and acoustic material which was used as the infill of the struc-
tural frame of the theater building, seems to have been an attraction even for the
socialist technicians that were trying to adopt low-cost, high-quality techniques as
part of their attempt to master fabrication and standardization:
[Populit] was a high-resistance composite made of wood shavings bound with cement,
which could be pressed to obtain relatively lightweight slabs providing durability and insu-
lation. Populit seems to have arrived in Albania from the Italians before the Second World
War, though the details are obscure. Some accounts mention the involvement of an Italian
engineer by the name of Dario Pater, known to Mussolini’s wife, and a fixture at Villa
Torlonia, Il Duce’s residence. The Fascist regime reveled in material innovations that
showed Italian ingenuity and self-reliance, so populit fit into an obsession with giving
autarky material form. (Mëhilli 2017, 179)
Interestingly enough, as pointed out by Kreshnik Merxhani, celenit, a new contem-
porary patented ecological material, with similar composition, is used nowadays in
the newly renovated Opera and Ballet Theater in Tirana which is promoted as one
of the successful projects of the current administration.28
Here it is possible to dis-
tinguish the double standard of the language, when principally the same material is
27
Edmond Budina in conversation with the author, 16 November 2019, at the Theater site.
28
Merxhani, Kreshnik. 2019. “Kjo është serioze”, arkitekti Merxhani: Me pupulit po restaurohet
dhe Opera, është i mirë a helmues.
Dosja.al. https://dosja.al/kjo-eshte-serioze-arkitekti-merxhani-me-pupulit-po-restaurohet-dhe-
opera-eshte-i-mire-a-helmues/. Accessed October 2020.
2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/21621971-250514183218-7c3460b9/85/Design-Commons-Practices-Processes-And-Crossovers-Gerhard-Bruyns-53-320.jpg)
![38
denigrated in the case of the theater building, and praised in the case of a project
brought about by the administration itself. The forefront of the rhetoric to devaluate
the theater building was extensively sustained by the allegedly degraded material
condition, a result of the decay intentionally left to happen due to the lack of main-
tenance. Populit was constantly denigrated, being labelled as tallash (sawdust),
implying that it was weak, had no good bearing properties and posed a risk to the
health of users, because of the presence of mold and probably asbestos (Fig. 2.11).29
The presence of asbestos was never proven by any technical report, although the
sickness of some actors was speculatively blamed on the material. Even if asbestos
were found, we known that it is not a reason to demolish a building, when its
removal is a commonly known practice. The intentionally offensive language used
towards the material was associated with a derogatory depiction of the defenders of
the building as being emotional, non-rational artists who romanticize everything
old. They were accused of stopping progress and hating everything new. The more
the building and its matter was attacked with this populist language, the more capa-
cious the agency of the material-human formation became throughout its resistance.
29
Several politicians debunked the material in videos or reactions on Facebook. Deputy major of
Tirana, Arbjan Mazniku, appeared propagating the bad properties of the material, holing and
refracting it when speaking, min 1:00. Video appeared on the Facebook page of the Prime Minister.
https://www.facebook.com/edirama.al/videos/985013495163240
The day after the demolition the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, continued to carry Populit in an
interview in the popular TV show Opinion:
RTV Klan. 2020. Opinion – Erion Veliaj: Shembja e teatrit! (18 maj 2020). [cited 2020 October
12]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y297-McaHHUt=2077s
Fig. 2.11 The mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, appeared in several television studious holding the
material populit in his hands, alleging that it was tallash (sawdust). Here he is on the TV Show
Opinion of May 18, 2020, on the national television station RTV Klan. (Source: YouTube https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y297-McaHHUt=2077s)
D. Pllumbi](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/21621971-250514183218-7c3460b9/85/Design-Commons-Practices-Processes-And-Crossovers-Gerhard-Bruyns-54-320.jpg)
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- 5. Design Research Foundations Gerhard Bruyns Stavros Kousoulas Editors Design Commons Practices, Processes and Crossovers
- 6. Design Research Foundations Series Editors Ilpo Koskinen, School of Design, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia Peter Gall Krogh, Department of Digital Design and Information Studies, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus, Denmark Editorial Board Katja Battarbee, Mountain View, USA Lucienne Blessing, Singapore University of Technology and D, Singapore, Singapore Mieke Boon, Philosophy, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Amaresh Chakrabarti, IISc Quarters NE-305, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India Lin-Lin Chen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands Gilbert Cockton, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Nathan Crilly, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Kees Dorst, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia Claudia Eckert, Engineering and Innovation, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK Per Galle, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, S, Birkeroed, Denmark Annie Gentes, Dépt SES, Telecom Paristech, Paris, France Armand Hatchuel, Mines ParisTech, Paris, France Paul Hekkert, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands Caroline Hummels, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands Giulio Jacucci, Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Gesche Joost, Prozessgestaltung, Raum Ein 220, Univ der Künste Berlin, Inst Produkt, Berlin, Berlin, Germany Tobie Kerridge, Goldsmiths University of London, London, UK Anita Kocsis, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia Peter Gall Krogh, Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Jung-Joo Lee, Division of Industrial Design, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore Stefano Maffei, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy Charles Lenay, COSTECH, University of Technology of Compiègne, COMPIEGNE CEDEX, France Tuuli Mattelmäki, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland Anthonie W. M. Meijers, Department of Philosophy and Ethics, Eindhoven Univ of Technology, Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands Kristina Niedderer, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK Panos Y. Papalambros, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA Johan Redstrom, Umeå University, Umea, Sweden Yoram Reich, Wolfson - Engineering, 230, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel Arne Scheuermann, Kommunikationsdesign, Hochschule der Künste Bern, Bern, Switzerland Kin Wai Michael Siu, School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ, Kowloon, Hong Kong Oscar Tomico, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands Pieter E. Vermaas, Department of Philosophy, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands John Zimmerman, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
- 7. Managing Editor Clementine Thurgood, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia The goal of the series is to provide a platform for publishing state of the art research on foundational issues in design and its applications in industry and society. Suitable topics range from methodological issues in design research to philosophical reflections on the specificities of design rather than actual design work or empirical cases only. The definition of design behind the series is inclusive. In terms of disciplines, it ranges from engineering to architecture. In terms of design work, it ranges from conceptual issues in design through design experiments and prototypes to evaluative studies of design and its foundations. Proposals should include: • A proposal form, as can be found on this page • A short synopsis of the work or the introduction chapter • The proposed Table of Contents • The CV of the lead author(s) • If available: one sample chapter We aim to make a first decision within 1 month of submission. In case of a positive first decision the work will be provisionally contracted: the final decision about publication will depend upon the result of the anonymous peer review of the complete manuscript. The series editors aim to have the complete work peer- reviewed within 3 months of submission. The series discourages the submission of manuscripts that contain reprints of previous published material and/or manuscripts that are below 150 pages / 75,000 words. For inquiries and submission of proposals authors can contact the series editors, Pieter Vermaas via: p.e.vermaas@tudelft.nl or Ilpo Koskinen via: ilpo.koskinen@ polyu.edu.hk More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/13775
- 8. Gerhard Bruyns • Stavros Kousoulas Editors Design Commons Practices, Processes and Crossovers
- 9. ISSN 2366-4622 ISSN 2366-4630 (electronic) Design Research Foundations ISBN 978-3-030-95056-9 ISBN 978-3-030-95057-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95057-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Editors Gerhard Bruyns The School of Design The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR Stavros Kousoulas Faculty of Architecture TU Delft Delft, The Netherlands
- 10. v Acknowledgments This volume would not have been possible without the generous support of the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft. We are indebted to the Design Research Foundations series’ editors Ilpo Koskinen, (former) Pieter E. Vermaas, and Clementine Thurgood for their recep- tiveness and enthusiasm for our book project and their valuable comments and assistance. We are also grateful to Heleen Schröder for her copyediting input and overall preparation of this volume for publication. Finally, we are thankful to all the authors in this book for their generous contribu- tions and excellent cooperation. It would, quite literally, be impossible without them.
- 11. vii Contents 1 An Introduction to Design Commons���������������������������������������������������� 1 Gerhard Bruyns and Stavros Kousoulas Part I Design, the Commons and the Social 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to Save the Albanian National Theater �������������������������� 19 Dorina Pllumbi 3 AutoCostruzione-SelbstBau: Design as a Practical Knowledge Translation Process���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 45 Maria Reitano and Nikolaus Gartner 4 Scaling Out, Up and Deep Understanding the Sustainment and Resilience of Urban Commons���������������������������������������������������������������� 57 Chun Zheng 5 Alignments of Architecture and Commoning in Tai O Village Architecture Critique and Fields of Adversity�������������������������������������� 77 Daniel Elkin, Chi-Yuen Leung, and Xiao Lu Wang Part II Design, the Commons and Culture 6 Persistent Modeling of the Built A Collective Experiment Merging Structural Preservation and Digital Design Between Academia and Industry�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 101 Frank Bauer and Lasse Sehested Skafte 7 The Commons in African Spatial Production: A Critical Review of Geographies of Power������������������������������������������������������������ 119 Gert van der Merwe 8 Expressing Urban Commons: Architectural Ambiguity in the Construction of an Improvisational Future������������������������������������������ 139 Nicholas Frayne
- 12. viii Part III Design, the Commons and Ecology 9 Intriguing Human-Waste Commons: Praxis of Anticipation in Urban Agroecological Transitions������������������������������������������������������ 161 Markus Wernli 10 The Secondary Use Group: Unlocking Waste as a Common Pool of Resources in the 1970s���������������������������������������������������������������� 183 Piero Medici 11 Reclaiming the Habitat: Food, Fire and Affordance in Designing and Living the Urban������������������������������������������������������������ 207 Liana Psarologaki and Stamatis Zografos Part IV Design, the Commons and Transdisciplinarity 12 Design and Commons: A Lacanian Approach�������������������������������������� 223 Dora Karadima 13 “Matters of Care” in Spaces of Commoning: Designing In, Against and Beyond Capitalism������������������������������������������������������������� 239 Katharina Moebus 14 Design as Commoning: Drawing Together with Care�������������������������� 259 Lőrinc Vass, Roy Cloutier, and Nicole Sylvia Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 277 Contents
- 13. ix Frank Bauer, as Elsa-Neumann PhD Fellow embedded at the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity,” inquires into ontological logics of digital modeling and fabri- cation workflows, with special interest into their operative, instrumental, and sym- bolic basis. He graduated in architecture from UdK Berlin (MA 2017), with stays at UIC and IIT Chicago, as well as in social science, art, and cultural history studies from ALU Freiburg, FU Berlin, and JGU Mainz (MA 2012), respectively. After positions with the Fondation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence and KWY Lisbon, he co- founded Büro Vogel Bauer, a planning agency for contemporary fine arts produc- tion. In the Department of Digital and Experimental Design at UdK Berlin, he is currently teaching design studios within the BArch and interdisciplinary MA pro- gram in design and computation (TU/UdK Berlin). Gerhard Bruyns is an architect and urbanist. He is an associate professor in the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research deals with aspects of spatial morphology (morpho.org) and its impact on both the formal expression of the city and societal conditions that are compressed into an urban landscape of Asia. He has published on design strategies, spatial commoning, geo- political issues linked to spatial practices, and urban morphology. Contingent is a multi-disciplinary research and design collective based in Vancouver and Tokyo. Current collaborators include Roy Cloutier, Nicole Sylvia, and Lőrinc Vass. Roy Cloutier and Nicole Sylvia are adjunct professors in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia, and architectural designers at Patkau Architects in Vancouver. Lőrinc Vass is an architectural designer and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Architecture, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Daniel Elkin is a researcher, designer, and maker with a decade of experience. He serves asAssistant Professor of Environment and Interior Design in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design. Educated at Cranbrook Academy of Art (MArch, 2015) and the University of Cincinnati, Elkin’s research focuses on spatial Author Biographies
- 14. x agency, collaborative governance, and housing, particularly in non-normative devel- opment scenarios. His recent work in stilt house communities is published in inter- national journals and conferences. His spatial activism work with student collaborators was published in Cubic Journal’s Design Social edition. His analysis of emergent spatializations was published in Architectural Research Quarterly. He served as first editor of the upcoming Cubic Journal issue on design making. Nicholas Frayne is an emerging scholar working at the frontiers of architectural research and practice. His global background and longstanding interest in interna- tional development ground his work in an urgent need to address sustainable think- ing in its cultural, economic, and political dimensions. Having won awards for his design and research work, he brings experience at architecture firms in New York, Boston, and Toronto to his understanding of architecture as a force for societal transformation, critique, and ethical action. With an epistemological philosophy rooted in experiential learning, his research is focused on sociology, historiography, and art theory in order to approach architectural praxis from new angles. Nikolaus Gartner is an architect who graduated from TU Wien (Technical University of Vienna). In October 2019, he received the Fred Sinowatz Science Award for his master’s degree thesis “Cutting Reed: Strategy for the Architectural Handling of Lake Neusiedl Reed Belt.” Since 2019, he has been a member of ICOMOS Austria, analyzing the impact of architecture on the cultural landscape and world heritage site Fertő/Neusiedlersee. He was a tutor in the Department of Design and Design Theory, Institute of Architecture, TU Wien, until 2016, and is currently practicing as an architect in Vienna. His fields of interest include vernacu- lar architecture, DIY culture applied to architecture, and local building techniques and knowledge. Throughout his work, he has been developing architectural strate- gies dealing with high-quality low-budget designs and sharable languages to coop- eratively approach a building process. He is currently curator of the exhibition “Schilf schneiden,” promoted by the Austrian association ArchitekturRaum Burgenland, to be opened in Spring 2021. Dora Karadima is a PhD candidate in theArchitectural Department at the National Technical University of Athens. Her research interests sprawl around design theory, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and the possible theorization between them. Her interest lies in understanding the inner core of design processes and practice with a particu- lar interest in the position of the designer within them. Her work is based mostly in dismantling design theory and the mode it operates, using Lacanian theory in syn- ergytothisquest.AtthecoreofthisworkisthenotionofdesireandtheAnthropocene, which is now, more than ever, in need of re-establishing a discourse on values with the necessary reflection within. Stavros Kousoulas is Assistant Professor of Architecture Theory in the Faculty of Architecture of TU Delft. He has studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens and at TU Delft. He received his doctoral title cum laude from Author Biographies
- 15. xi IUAV Venice participating in the Villard d’Honnecourt International Research Doctorate. He has published and lectured in Europe and abroad. He is a member of the editorial board of Footprint Delft Architecture Theory Journal since 2014. Chi-Yuen Leung is a teaching fellow in the Department ofApplied Social Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He teaches social work subjects related to community development and macro-social work practice. He is also interested in studying social work education, practicing of community work, hawker markets, and urban poverty and social marginalization. He is currently engaged in sustain- able development research in rural areas and older urban areas, including Tai O village and Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong. Piero Medici is an architect, currently researcher and lecturer, in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft, and in the Master ofArchitecture program at Fontys University of Applied Science, Tilburg. He is a founding partner of the architectural and urban practice CoPE, and winner of the international com- petition Europan 14. Piero holds a degree in environmental sciences (BSc in Venice) and architecture (BSc in Venice, MSc in TU Delft), and a PhD (international PhD in IUAV, TU Delft, ENSA Paris Belleville). His doctoral thesis focused on European sustainable housing and neighborhoods during the 1970s. He has 15 years of experi- ence working as a researcher, lecturer, architect, and environmental scientist at vari- ous academic institutions and practices, including UCL Bartlett, London; KABK Royal Academy, The Hague; Ca′ Foscari, Venice; Grimshaw Architects, London; and Superuse Studios, Rotterdam. Piero is author of several publications, and his research focuses on architectural approaches concerning sustainability, circular economy, degrowth, and the commons. Gert van der Merwe graduated from the University of Pretoria (MProf Arch) in 2014. Following this, he focused on design-build, catalytic social programs, and low-cost housing. He has taught at the University of Pretoria in undergraduate and postgraduate courses (2016–2019). His research is focused on anti-gentrification and resistance tactics, and the rights of creatives and alternative social structures. He believes in embedded practice and views his praxis as action research and activism. Katharina Moebus is a feminist designer, organizer, and researcher based in Berlin who works at the intersection of socio-politically engaged design, radical pedagogy, and do-it-together (DIT) making. She is co-initiator and co-organizer of the neighborhood laboratory Common(s)Lab, co-founder and chairwoman of the transdisciplinary research collective Agents of Alternatives (AoA), and active mem- ber of the cultural project space top. After her BA in product and communication design at the Free University of Bolzano (2007), she completed an MA in applied art and design at Aalto University ARTS Helsinki (2011) and currently pursues a practice-based PhD at Sheffield University School of Architecture, exploring trans- formative economies and (spaces of) commoning practices in the urban context. Author Biographies
- 16. xii Dorina Pllumbi is an architect and a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture, TU Delft, Netherland. Her research interest resides in studying prac- tices of commoning as material and spatial engagement in realities of political tran- sition. Her particular focus is to understand the role that commoning practices have played in Albania during the transitional period from a totalitarian state socialist regime to a recently consolidating neoliberal one. Currently, Dorina is a visiting scholar at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Liana Psarologaki is an architect, installation artist, and educator with interest in meta-philosophy of space, post-humanities, and new pedagogies. She trained at the National Technical University of Athens and holds one of the first interdisciplinary PhDs in the creative arts completed at the Centre for Spatial Analysis and Intervention, UCA Canterbury. She is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Suffolk and the research lead for the built-environment strand at the Suffolk Sustainability Institute (SSI). In 2018 she received a senior fellowship from the Higher EducationAcademy in recognition of her leadership in architectural edu- cation, and in 2020, she was elected Chair of Education for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) East Region. Maria Reitano is an architect and PhD candidate in evaluation and urban planning in the Department of Architecture (DiARC), University of Naples Federico II. Her fields of interest include urban regeneration through cooperative decision-making processes, shared and plural values of urban ecosystems, and urban commoning. She studies peri-urban territories and their analysis according to a complex system- thinking perspective. In her research, she is developing methodological approaches addressed towards the definition of multi-stakeholder spatial decision support sys- tems (MS-SDSS) and investigating new opportunities deriving from the application of ICT and crowd-sourcing as digital social innovation tools to be implemented for the informatization of territories and the activation of sharing knowledge and co- learning processes. She is currently collaborating within the European research project HERA Joint Research Program, “Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe” (PUSH). Lasse Sehested Skafte, after studies in architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, graduated from the Department of Digital and Experimental Design at Berlin University of the Arts in 2017. He held positions with Raumlabor in Berlin, Herzog de Meuron in Basel, and a docent position with the Eames Foundation in Los Angeles. There, he also worked with the Center for Land Use Interpretation on perceptual studies of the American Anthropocene landscape. For his work in theory and design, he received several scholarships, among them from the Margot and Paul Baumgarten Foundation and the Danish Arts Foundation. His collaborative practice with the Popticum collective was recently exhibited at the Maia Biennale for Contemporary Art. As registered architect MAA, Lasse is an affiliated advisor for Realdanias Underværker program and currently works and practices in the field of art production in Berlin. Author Biographies
- 17. xiii Xiao Lu Wang is an associate in the Centre for Social Innovation at the Cambridge Judge Business School and was a former research assistant professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Wang is an interdisciplinary researcher: she had PhD and postdoc training in behav- ioral economics, organizational studies, and political economy. Her research focuses on the organization of social innovation, particularly on governance and cross- sector partnership. She has examined the organization of community action and social innovation for disaster relief, social services, commoning of community space, and social enterprise ecosystem. Dr. Wang is passionate about extending her research into innovations that achieve sustainability goals. Besides research, she also actively works with nonprofit organizations in Hong Kong. Markus Wernli’s design praxis explores the intricate relationality of human and nature through the development of more regenerative, ecologically entangled ways of living and designing. His ongoing research draws connections between food sys- tems and social, cultural, and local ecosystems to forge better relationships between what we breathe, eat, expel, wear, and grow. Much of his research might be consid- ered participatory citizen science or citizen-design interventions that can be gath- ered under the umbrella of participatory research through design. He specializes in contextually applied and critical research-through-design, bringing focus to the social and ecological impact of body-technology pairings and human-biosphere interactions. Markus is a research assistant professor with the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and has held appointments in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University in Canberra, Zokei University of Art and Design in Kyoto, and the Multimedia Studies Program at San Francisco State University. Chun Zheng is a landscape architect, urban designer, and currently a PhD researcher in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Her doctoral research concerning practices of commoning and urban agriculture in the USA and China is supported by the China Scholarship Council. Chun is also a Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) certified permaculture designer. Most recently, she co-curated the digital exhibition A dialogue must take place, precisely because we don’t speak the same language in the context of the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial and the research fellowship program MAPP (Methods, Affects Practical Pedagogies) in the School of Commons at Zurich University of the Arts. Stamatis Zografos is an architect and academic. He is a senior teaching fellow in architectural history and theory at UCL Bartlett School of Architecture and a visit- ing lecturer in critical and historical studies at the Royal College of Art. He is also the founder of Incandescent Square, an interdisciplinary platform for research and design with interests spanning from architecture and urbanism to critical heritage and curating. He is the author of Architecture and Fire: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Conservation, which was published in 2019 by UCL Press. Author Biographies
- 18. 1 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 G. Bruyns, S. Kousoulas (eds.), Design Commons, Design Research Foundations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95057-6_1 Chapter 1 An Introduction to Design Commons Gerhard Bruyns and Stavros Kousoulas Abstract The reasons for a dedicated edition on “design and commoning” are two- fold. First, the recent surge of renewed interest in the social conditions of design remains atheoretical. A deeper theoretical and philosophical foundation will help problematize the link between commoning and design, and in doing so define the operative theories, concepts and frameworks that influence design thinking across a series of design contexts and conditions. And secondly, design has become more ubiquitous, expanding both its domain of influence and conditions of praxis. With this expansion, design touches a variety of contested areas. Designers are continu- ously challenged by conflicts and edge conditions, having to mitigate between both scales of conflict and the vested interests of individuals. In the global climate of population increase and the prevalent reduction of financial resources the question and theorization of shared capacities will remain part and parcel of future of design thinking. The four thematic clusters contained here exploit the theoretical and philo- sophical themes related to the large commoning “problematique,” providing design- ers better grounding in the networked context of the twenty-first century. The explicit theorization of design and the commons will explore the implicit relations through each of the collected contributions to show how this philosophical construct can be explicated in the context of network collectives and transdisciplinary approaches that currently inform design practices. Keywords Design commons · Social · Culture · Ecology · Transdisciplinary G. Bruyns School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR e-mail: gerhard.bruyns@polyu.edu.hk S. Kousoulas (*) Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: S.Kousoulas@tudelft.nl
- 19. 2 1 (De)sign Expressions Examining the etymology of the word “design,” one comes to a startling conclu- sion: design, simultaneously, refers to a multitude of diverse conditions. As philoso- pher Vilém Flusser explains, design as a noun can refer to a “purpose,” a “plan,” a “goal” or a “form”; at the same time, as a verb, to design means to “concoct,” to “draft,” to “sketch” or to “shape” (Flusser 1995, 50). In any case, and that is signifi- cant to us, design is derived from the Latin word signum, which literally means a sign. Therefore, design in its original disegnare can be directly understood as “expressing a sign.” We will claim that it is of great importance to define design in its original relation with expression, rather than limiting it to specific practices (such as drawing, tracing, outlining, or modelling). Design, first and foremost, is the prac- tice of expressing signs. Necessarily, this leads us to a broader discussion: how can we understand signs and their expression? Let us examine them both in brief. One of the most common mistakes when it comes to signs, is to approach them strictly semantically or syn- tactically; in other words, to confine them only within the disciplinary boundaries of linguistics. On the contrary, we will posit that when it comes to design practices, signs should be placed in a different, third category of information. In this sense, signs belong to a pragmatic level: how can a sign affect the behavior of both a trans- mitter and a receiver? Consequently, we can understand signs as “meaning.” Nonetheless, confusion arises, precisely because once again, the common tendency is to give to language alone the privilege of producing meaning. As philosopher Manuel DeLanda claims, our confusion regarding the word “meaning” comes from the fact that “meaning” has two meanings: signification and significance, one refer- ring to semantic context, the other to importance and relevance (DeLanda 2006, 22). It is the second meaning of “meaning” that we have in mind here: How signs are communicated throughout living systems? How can one find meaning in the actions of another? As such, signs (understood as meaning) can be conceptualized as the very feeling of crossing a threshold. Among an infinite number of actions and perceptions, some do indeed cross a limit that transform them to something that has a certain signifi- cance for us. In this manner, we can provide an initial reformulation of the term design: to express meaningful actions and perceptions. What about the term expres- sion then? As sociologist Antoine Hennion suggests, it is again interesting to exam- ine its etymology (Hennion 2016, 84). Initially, it comes from the Latin expressare: ex, “out,” and pressare, “to press.” Expression then literally means to press out, to squeeze, to extort: expression is a coming out (Hennion 2016, 84) A coming out of where however? Moreover, if to express is to press out, then towards where is this pressure oriented, where does it lead? What is being pressured, to afford something to come out of it? It would be misleading to conceive expression as a pressure in extensive terms. In addition, it is equally misleading to conceive it in spatial terms, where pressure stands merely for the force applied to a surface. Quite the opposite, pressure is not force on surface: pressure is force acting on force. In other words, G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 20. 3 expression, as the pressure to come out, belongs to the intensive: expression is always an act on the pressurized limit. Consequently, we can now come up with a complete reformulation: design is the effort to discover, manipulate and cross intensive limits that can eventually lead to the production of meaningful actions and perceptions. Therein lies the focus of this volume. If discovering, manipulating and crossing limits is what design is about, then – by definition – design is at once both technological and collective. To be more precise, it is collective because it is technological and vice versa. To make this clear, we need to provide a broader and more inclusive definition of technology. Without exceeding the scope of this introduction, we will briefly indicate one direc- tion, namely the thought of philosopher Gilbert Simondon. For Simondon, the dichotomy between culture and technology is based on a fundamental misunder- standing of technology which, at least in cultural terms, positions it as a foreign reality (Simondon 2017, 134). For that reason, Simondon proposes the term “tech- nical culture,” suggesting a way of thinking which surpasses that conflict. The point of departure for a way of thinking that no longer considers technology and culture apart, is a shift of focus from the usage and utility of technical objects. Aiming to provoke an awareness of the modes of existence of technical objects, one should focus on the genesis of the objects themselves (Simondon 2017, xi). Simondon does so by developing the concept of technicity. For Simondon, tech- nicity is fully relational since it necessarily deals with a constant becoming. If one aims to avoid reductionism, then, Simondon advises us, one should expand the scope of study beyond the technical objects to the technicity of these objects as a mode of relation between human and world (Simondon 2017, 162). The autonomy of each technical object lies in its relational technicity, since “technical objects result from an objectification of technicity; they are produced by it, but technicity is not exhausted in objects and is not entirely contained in them” (Simondon 2017, 176). In simple terms, technicity deals with how humans relate to and transform their environment through technology and how these relations transform all of them – humans, technology and environment – in turn. In this sense, one could start examining design in its technicity. How is it though that design technicities produce collectives? It is by turning to philosopher Bernard Stiegler that we can provide an answer. Stiegler is categorical when claiming that technology is responsible for the emergence of any collective (Stiegler 1998). This is the case because technology has the capacity to potentialize particular kinds of both memory and intentionality, what Stiegler refers to as a third, epiphylogenetic kind of retention and protention (Stiegler 1998). Simply put, tech- nological artefacts inscribe and exteriorize the actions of a collective past while simultaneously enabling future interventions. A humble table, for example, is the expression of collective efforts that lasted thousands of years aiming at literally elevating the ground from the earth, enabling a form of sociality that would not have been possible otherwise. In addition, the (fundamentally technological) inscription of plans and ideas on a piece of paper brings people together by exteriorizing the promise of a future that is not here yet. With these two examples, we can understand why Simondon suggests that we should use the term transindividual when 1 An Introduction to Design Commons
- 21. 4 attempting to speak of human subjects and how they evolve: the purely personal and the wholly social constantly co-transform through technology (Simondon 2020). Design technicities, from a table to a sketch on a piece of paper, spark transindi- viduality, enabling the conditions for the production of a collective. Simultaneously, our design technicities in their forming of a collective also produce novel ways of thinking, novel ways of reasoning. This is why architectural theorist Sanford Kwinter claims that design is “a highly advanced form of rationality, perhaps the highest there currently is” (Kwinter 2007, 17). To this, Kwinter adds that If design is the dominant form of rationality in our era, it is inseparable from the grand machinery of secular striving and making identified by Max Weber a century ago; it com- pounds our economic, spirito-religious and sensual life into a single yarn: it is technique itself. To say that it is what we are, is not necessarily to celebrate, but to cast a warning and an admonition that somewhere the control of our destiny was handed to us and we failed to answer the challenge with either sobriety, ecstasy or thought (Kwinter 2007, 17, emphasis in original). Therefore, it is of the greatest importance to examine how our design technicities produce both the world and us, the subjects that live in it. Furthermore, it is of equal importance to elaborate on how we, the (self)designed subjects of a (hetero)designed world, come together and, transindividualy, form collectives. However, and this is one of this volume’s ambitions, perhaps of greater importance is to speculate on how we could – through our design technicities – produce new ways of being and becoming collective, ways that would eventually produce both a new world and a new people. In this sense, it is imperative to examine design technicities in their relation to the commons and to practices of commoning, since both have long been considered the purposeful intentionality behind the formation of any collective body. 2 Commons and Commoning The word “commoning” derives from the wider concept of the commons, a term that has deep philosophical and theoretical roots dating back to the ideas of Plato and Thomas Hobbes. In the contemporary sense, the mechanization of commoning as an operative concept provides the foundation of an alternative and heterogeneous socio-economic model within the public sector but beyond the dichotomy between public and private. Its echoing effect has led to the fusion of the concept with a variety of design domains as for example game design, spatial design and prod- uct design. The commons as a concept relies on an understanding of how natural recourses –referred to as “common-pool resources” – are co-shared among a number of individuals and collectives. The very act of producing, managing, shar- ing and distributing these common resources is what we refer to as the act of com- moning. It is a concept that transverses social, economic, technological, and scalar questions. Commoning embeds its functionality within small groups (the users of a kitchen) or in a wider domain, within the civic (in public spaces and parks).As such, G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 22. 5 it is both local (a village) and global (use of the oceans) and can materialize in a restricted (a house) or boundless (immigration) format. In other words, and in con- nection to our entry point regarding a renewed understanding of design, commons and their commoning refer to all the collective technicities that we deploy in order to change our environment and ourselves. Complementing our approach, this volume will build on Elinor Ostrom’s origi- nal publication Governing the Commons (1990), which questioned the dominant models of managing and sharing natural as well as human-made resources. With the revival of the concept in economics (from thinkers such as Ronald Coase or Albert O. Hirschman) and sociology (one can think of Rosabeth Moss Kanter), Ostrom’s contribution was a sociologically oriented empirical approach that helped to explain how some institutional arrangements have helped several communities to manage their commons and maximize community welfare, in some cases, for centuries. The commons materialize where the private interests of the individual are set against the shared interests of a collective. In a historical context, this “individual versus collective” establishes specific understandings of reciprocity among kin. Closer examination of social crises has shown the effectiveness of the commons in addressing moments of uncertainty as a social problem-solving model. Co-operation in food gathering, child rearing, and defense – in whatever formats – remained co- dependent on a broader collective action. As Ostrom states, “collective-action prob- lems pervade international relations, face legislators when devising public budgets, permeate public bureaucracies, and are at the core of explanations of voting, interest group formation, and citizen control of governments in a democracy” (Ostrom 1998, 1). The commons, in the more contemporary sense, has reverberated into the domains of political ecologies, and as such the very nature of political-economic approaches to territory, governance and types of economies (Ostrom 1998). Therefore, despite its origins in classic political philosophy, the commons has become transdisciplinary in application. It has affected discourses around asset management, environmental ecologies, urban design, geopolitical debates on human rights, and the production of knowledge. It has relied on rational choice theory, related to game theory (Ostrom et al. 2008) and the theory of public commodities to reformulate economic positions away from dominant economies of consumption, speculation and exchange. For thinkers such as David Bollier and Silke Helfrich (2015), the structural con- ditions of the commons has delivered compelling patterns of engagement at three levels. First, the processes of the commons, its co-action, co-production or co- operating – either at scales of a high-rise, in an urban village deeply embedded in rural regions, in artistic communities, research settings, or related to collectives in cyberspace – remains a universal necessity. Put succinctly, one way or another, we are all in need of being involved in the very technicities that determine how we produce and manage our shared resources. Secondly, to this effect, although the commons may be regarded as a social occurrence derived from outdated principles, it still retains a modest appreciation in hyper-industrial and modernized societies. Thirdly, the commons define an “open source” paradigm shift. In this shift, the com- mons represents a repositioned world view, one that influences both material, 1 An Introduction to Design Commons
- 23. 6 formal and conceptual conditions as a process: fab labs, hacker spaces, jamming, the sharing economy, the reformation of the civic, types of governance, the private, the public and, as such, the urban, are each reframed once placed within the domains of the commons concept. In this direction, philosophers Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (2009) expand on the Marxist analysis of political-economic systems, setting the commons logics against the advantages and disadvantages of diverse governance models, economic systems and social movements. In the field of architecture theory, Hardt and Negri’s position has been situated within the specifics of public space, linking the commons to self-organized empowerment struggles (Sohn et al. 2015). The discussion of a variety of social movements explicates how both publicness and the urban remate- rialize through the self-organization of social bodies in an attempt to expose latent possibilities within the civic and urban space in times of crisis. The work draws strongly on architect Stavros Stavrides (2016), linking urban spaces to the commons in periods of urban activism. From another angle, the commons has created a balance between different domains of knowledge in data culture. Defining knowledge as a specific commons, the information paradigm has become decentralized in both its production and own- ership. Intelligences, intellectual property and the civics’ role are tested through digital information which has, in the conventional sense, always been closed-off and commodified. For Ostrom, irrespective of whether it is labelled “digital,” “elec- tronic,” “information,” “virtual,” “communication,” “intellectual,” or “technologi- cal,” (Ostrom 2008, 5) the information and knowledge domain speaks to the sharing of a common field where materiality, know-how and data are collective by default. In this light the common-pool resources become economic as well as legal in nature, differentiating the “rights to” from the “rights from” in terms of who has access to information and who can derive rights from each data set. References to the legalities of common property (Bromley 1998; Ciriacy- Wantrup and Bishop 1975), transference of rights and the open access of knowl- edge, in whatever format, remain at the heart of the questions posed in the light of the knowledge-commons versus knowledge-economies, materialized in the various licenses to use, distribute or take part in commercial enterprises. In respect to digital media and popular culture, a range of practices from social media to game modify- ing communities has long helped to destabilize the traditional idea of centralized authorship. Media texts or video games are not only remixed and reconfigured, redefined and deconstructed by “small” actors, but alternative economies and new ways of doing have emerged on the side. Everything from “participatory media” and “fandom” to “piracy cultures” and “Kickstarted” design education is in one way or another linked to a broader idea of the commons. In parallel, the commons concomitantly expose certain drawbacks. As outlined by ecologist Garrett Hardin (1968) in what is termed the “tragedy of the commons,” the imbalance of supply and demand exponentially affects structural as well as long term effects. Irrespective of its application in a spatial domain, in the eradication of illnesses, or in its continued advocacy of “the public good,” the complexity of bal- ancing market-driven needs and resource availability may irreversibly transform all the conditions of both common good and how various systems are brought together. G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 24. 7 Ostrom et al. (2008) herself mechanizes the praxis of design when postulating prin- ciples for governing sustainable recourses. Among others, design remains a neces- sary skill when mechanizing the commons, articulating definable boundaries, determining the proportional balance between benefits and costs, making collective choice arrangements, strategizing conflict resolution, and minimally recognizing the right to organize nested enterprises and even design pedagogies (Freire 2007). As is obvious from this short overview of the diverse lines of thinking that the commons generates, little has been done so far in terms of exploring explicitly its relation with design. We are therefore left to question the “common” thread in this conceptual field and its specificity to the design setting. Moreover, despite a recent surge of renewed interest in the social conditions of design, most accounts remain deeply atheoretical. We will claim that a more focused theoretical and philosophical foundation will help problematize the link between commoning and design, and in doing so define the operative theories, concepts and frameworks that influence design thinking across a series of context and conditions. In the global climate of population increase and the prevalent reduction of finan- cial resources, the question and theorization of shared (collective and technological) capacities will remain part and parcel to the future of design thinking and doing. This volume therefore exploits the theoretical and philosophical themes related to a wider field of a commoning design technicities, providing designers better ground- ing in the diverse contexts of the twenty-first century. As such, the theorization of design and the commons explores the implicit link through each of the collected contributions to show how this philosophical construct can be explicated in the con- text of network collectives and transdisciplinary approaches that currently inform design practices. 3 Design Commons… In this context, and from the overwhelming response to our call for contributions, this book explores four areas of interest. Our selection criteria considered each sub- mission’s thematic valance, as well as crossovers with other debates. From the range of articles included in this volume, it has become clear how active spatial practices have been, and remain to be, in questioning design and the commons. This brings to question why so few voices are evident within the established domains of product design or in the emergent domains of service design, experience design, or even policy design in questioning the commons. 3.1 …and the Social Reconsidering design, the commons and the social is a natural point of departure, representing the first thematic cluster. The inclusion of the commons in the social realm exposes deep rifts in both the use and application of social models, social life and of being “social.” To this effect, Dorina Pllumbi reflects on the field of power 1 An Introduction to Design Commons
- 25. 8 relations generated by collective and emancipatory initiatives in Tirana, Albania, against the developmental pressure of state-led coalitions, questioning perpetual and long-lasting relations through spatial practices. Plumbi highlights that “collec- tivities” are still present, active and resistant, despite the corrosion of the notion of the collective itself after multiple decades of both totalitarian state control and neo- liberal policies. In addition, Plumbi reminds us that eliminating the traditional bina- ries that are associated in any discussion of the commons (i.e., public versus private, individual versus collective) without overcoming them in action, can eventually cause more damage than good. As such, by referring to the Spinozian conatus (the driving force of each individuation) Plumbi asks what a political body can do when faced with the need to organize itself in order to tackle a specific (design) problem. Maria Reitano and Nikolaus Gartner deepen the discussion of resilient social systems through co-design, focusing on self-production, co-production and re- production to situate identity and technical knowledge. Focusing on co-design as a practice of “doing together,” a renewed understanding of design knowledge is pre- sented. For Reitano and Gartner, it is a collective “know-how” that matters and not just the acquisition of a factual “know-that”. This collective “know-how” emerges through production itself (be it self-, co- or re-production) and by embracing the contingency of common design practices, binds a collective together. In other words, for Reitano and Gartner, a praxis communis is always produced and never a given, brought forth by the intricate experiential bonds of common action and knowledge production. The contribution by Chun Zheng directs the discussion towards the commons in the framework of resilience thinking. For Zheng, the notions of scaling-out, scaling- up and scaling-deep crystallize a commons triad that unifies regional agendas, social agency and resilience strategies. By understanding urban commons as something radically different than natural commons, Zheng highlights the importance of prac- tices of governance that emerge as the capacity to respond to disturbances and endure over time. As such, urban commons becomes a matter of sustainment and resilience, constituting therefore a dynamic social process. It is this complex dyna- mism that scaling-out, scaling-up and scaling-deep examine. Zheng concludes her article by underlining that the value of urban commons (and their spaces) is not merely the value of land and buildings, but, crucially, the value of people and their collective activities. In doing so, Zheng makes clear that by focusing on the impor- tance of the collective production of new norms and values, a renewed definition of commoning can appear: to (re)produce in common. Finally, Daniel Elkin, Chi-Yuen Leung and Xiao Lu Wang’s contribution chal- lenges the alignment between commoning practices and architecture’s disciplinary limits. Their action research work in Tai O Village, Hong Kong, elaborates the role architectural products play in collaborative governance frameworks. Therefore, they question the degree to which commoning practices affect architectural design, understood now as a decision-making process. Elkin, Leung and Wang continue Zheng’s claims on urban commons by highlighting how architectural design asserts its conceptual framework, where potential alignments to commoning occur and how these affect the very foundations of architecture. They do so by placing focus on G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 26. 9 architectural production itself as well as the objects (or better said, the products) that are usually associated with architecture, successfully introducing a broadened understanding of design agency. 3.2 …and Culture The second thematic cluster examines the link between design, commons and cul- ture. Frank Bauer and Lasse Sehested Skafte, close to the concerns of Elkin, Leung and Wang, probe a novel understanding of agency and commoning in the digital age. Their perspective outlines an account whereby design is decoupled from linear and sequential processes in favor of intertwined and holistic approaches. In doing so they argue for diverse approaches to the commons that may serve ecologies, econo- mies and foundations of design more actively. By asking how digital designers can reassess their stake between individual and collective modes of production, Bauer and Skafte suggest that a potential transformation in their relation to the commons might occur, proposing a human/non-human assemblage of diverse design agents. Their concept of persistent modelling functions as a speculative design and knowl- edge tool that through abstraction crosses the thresholds between digital and physi- cal, mediating design knowledge across domains. In other words, the persistent model is a process of continuous modeling that promotes simultaneously both spec- ulation and precise interventions. Gert van der Merwe posits that the commons should be also understood as part of indigenous systems of spatial production, viewed as an ongoing and relational process in a geography of external power dynamics. Using South Africa as case in point, van der Merwe highlights the differences between the commons of the global North in relation to the global South, where the balance between legitimacy of com- munity is placed alongside a “socially constructed” commons. The case studies he examines stand firmly against the categorical taxonomization of mapping that sedi- ment and immobilize bodies in space, exemplary of the occidental oculocentric rep- resentational logics and tools that confuse the map for the territory. Those taxonomies, van der Merwe argues, cannot capture the mobility of pre-colonized Africa, claiming that our tools for approaching the commons do not easily apply in the African context, expressing therefore the need for an immanent and locally bound account of the commons. Nicholas Frayne’s contribution argues for the utilization of uncertainty as a guid- ing mechanism for narratives that are generated from the lived environment. Linking with the work of Van der Merwe, Frayne harnesses the notions of decolonization, identity and ambiguity to situate a commons where improvisational relationships establish situational environments that support contradiction, flux and connectivity. Frayne advocates an architecture that can make one defamiliarize, suggesting there- fore new ways of living (with each other). As such, he essentially proposes that the political is not to be conflated with the personal but rather with a process of continu- ous estrangement. Ambiguity, for Frayne, is both a conceptual framework and a 1 An Introduction to Design Commons
- 27. 10 social practice that results in the emergence and formation of connections.Therefore, he provides three distinct analytical modes that deal with ambiguity from different yet encompassing perspectives: living with, composing, and encountering ambigu- ity work in tandem to propose a different understanding of architecture, no longer as a representational practice but rather as the enterprise of forming novel connections. 3.3 …and Ecology The third cluster focuses on design, commons and ecology. Markus Wernli’s approach to the commons is through the lenses of living systems and the bio-context of human-waste. Wernli discusses the regenerative, life-giving value chains, arguing for a paradigmatic shift towards bio-economic value creation, a commons distilled from food pedagogies, human nutrients and compost-friendly infrastructures. Wernli claims that human-waste commoning permits communities to regain control over their social reproduction, highlighting the essential biopolitical relations that substantiate any collective formation. An account of human-waste commons, according to Wernli, can revere the ecological use-value of land, partner communi- ties with their non-human counterparts, link collectives with the management of their resources and challenge established food distribution practices. Through dif- ferent case studies, Wernli makes clear that the often neglected human-waste com- mons can bring forth a novel, affirmative account of commoning that focuses on fostering modes of collective anticipation that move beyond traditional forms of communal participation and reaction. In comparison, Piero Medici’s historic lens uses the Secondary Reuse Group (SUG) as a form of critique against contemporary aspects of circular economies in light of the commons. Herein, Medici discusses the links between waste as a resource material and the social in light of the common-pool resources. Waste or the “material commons” strikes a fine balance with immaterial commons that is depen- dent on crafting, negotiating and design experimentations. Following a diverse number of already established accounts on commoning, Medici underlines that common-pool resources can only turn to a commons when communities can actu- ally use them and sustain them, broadening therefore the commons to include inher- ited natural resources, material humanmade resources and intangible cultural resources. Through the work of SUG, Medici points that the office’s design and construction processes not only suggest a move from linear to circular economies, but also manage to bind together all the diverse common-pool resources and effec- tively turn them to a commons. Liana Psarologaki and Stamatis Zografos examine ecological and pedagogical models in relation to the commons, through food, fire and affordances. Their debate extends beyond the separate roles each element plays in shaping agents within envi- ronmental assemblages, presenting the ramifications of how design contributes to the consumption of environmental and material conditions. Psarologaki and G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 28. 11 Zografos approach cooking as humans’ primary technical ability, making food, fire and the regulation of their relation fundamental in the very definition of what deter- mines us as species. Opposing the relegation of food and fire to mere infrastructural or hazard-related concerns, the authors propose that we start discussing and practic- ing food and fire as actual urban commons, moving beyond a state of illiteracy when it comes to the ways that those two constitutive processes define the human. As such, they outline a novel field of urban commons, where food, fire and the design of rituals of collective feasting can both highlight the historicity of our species and remind us our duty towards it. 3.4 …and Transdisciplinarity Finally, the fourth thematic cluster, design, commons and transdisciplinarity explores the implicit link of commoning and how it can be explicated in the context of transdisciplinary approaches that currently inform design practices. Dora Karadima forms crossovers between the social sciences and design theory pertain- ing to issues of collaboration. Karadima links together three seemingly unconnected fields – design theory, the commons and psychoanalysis – by virtue of deconstruct- ing desire, alienation and separation. Focusing on the work of Jacques Lacan, Karadima uses his psychoanalytical account as an interpretative tool that underlines the importance of autonomy as a necessary precondition for both design and the commons to co-exist in an emancipatory potential. By expanding the discussion on value of the previous thematic clusters, Karadima eventually claims that the com- mons are determined by the co-production of common values, analyzing this pro- cess in terms of both design objects, design processes and design agents. In comparison, Katarina Moebus relates commoning, care and new materialism within the framework of feminism and Marxist scholarship through situated prac- tices, drawing conclusions about design’s inherent political economy to emancipate itself from the coercion driven by market forces. As such, Moebus underlines that design is not merely a problem-solving enterprise but rather acts as the mediating infrastructure through which collectives can address matters of care: what one does to maintain, sustain and repair a common world. Therefore, for Moebus, common- ing is to be defined as the design and the practice of constant care. Focusing on examples from her own practice, Moebus makes clear that bringing the commons together with design essentially entails a rethinking of how a community can repro- duce itself while ensuring that its common values will not be hijacked by ever loom- ing logics and practices of monetization. The final contribution by the Contingent Collective (Lörine Vass, Roy Cloutier and Nicole Sylvia) brings the concerns of this volume full circle. They seek, in their argument, to trace the development of the commons in architecture and urbanism to wider cosmopolitical questions that involve agency and responsibility of design. The article postulates a reconsideration of the commons on two fronts: the evolution from a discrete locus (the commons) to a process (commoning), and secondly a shift 1 An Introduction to Design Commons
- 29. 12 away from the primary human decisions towards a “more-than-human” ensemble. The authors ask us to conceive the commons as the politics of connection between all the heterogeneous entities that comprise what we call the social. Therefore, com- moning becomes for them the means and the reason for radically rethinking our relation to relation. By developing an account of the commons that includes both common resources, commoning practices and the commoners themselves, the authors underline the contrasting trajectories of a merely managerial understanding of the commons while problematizing their (re)production. Through the practice of drawing together matters of care and drawing together those who have nothing in common (yet), the authors claim that a relational account of the commons needs both a radical rethinking of how it enunciates its relation with the future and a how it can allow for the formation of heterogenous assemblages that can catalyze that futurity. 4 Designing a World Apart from the editorial introduction, and the threading together of the various con- cepts and contributions, what other reflections and implications are evident in our initial questions – the influence and new interpretations of design and the com- mons - in the long term? What synopsis is possible on the specifics of design, and what we outline here as the transmission of new or other design technicities? For what purpose, can these technicities facilitate design thinking? Our observations highlight a first problem of how design and the commons merge. From either side of the divide, reflecting on the design commons raises ques- tions on how any design – in its domain, disciplinary or material alignment – amal- gamates with the domain of the commons. From applied research to more abstract and theoretical, what defines design commons seems to constitute a challenge of linking design itself to either the ‘project as commons’ or the ‘commons as project’. The compartmentalization of either belonging to the commons in a conceptual premise alone or a material strategy that attempts to change engagement or useabil- ity, appears in many designs as well as design criticism to be a post-materialization contemplation. The fluidity of the middle ground, of being both a material endeavor as well as an abstraction within the commoning framework, remains a fluid and open challenge for design. Our experience on this specific topic over the last years, has proven that thinking commons versus producing commons will require continu- ous nurturing and development, as a committed endeavor with meaningful impact, spanning years if not decades. Following a similar line, as editors we question if the design commons can rely on a priori decisions, harnessing predetermined values and processes. The different polarities between design thinking and actual materialization bring a multitude of novel transdisciplinary challenges; in how and in what way design actions can com- bine methods from social sciences (socio-ethnographic), critical theory (hypothetical- abductive), data sciences (artificial intelligence, big data) and G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 30. 13 fabrication processes (algorithms, computational protocols)? In this, we foresee the emergence of both design as well as research challenges that will continue to test transdisciplinary methodologies by examining how design appropriates suitable analytic methods to advance design thinking, informed from a variety of angles and research perspectives. In the context of the ecological, biological, and technological environmentalism, the emphasis on robotics, artificial and other forms of intelligences, continues to place diverse tensions on design capacities and potentials. To address those ten- sions, we foresee a need to destabilize our human-centered understanding of the world by opening and relating it to the heterogeneous technicities that produce it. Positioning technicities first can help in approaching the operative aspects of design- ing with as well as for the commons. Without falling prey to any form of technologi- cal determinism or reductionism, design theories need to develop accounts that can examine the influence of data in design practices, underlining design in its diverse roles: speculative in the mitigation of transversal concepts, synthetic in the modula- tion of material forms. As already implied, limited interest for the commons in disciplines such as game design, communication design, graphic and product design is quite telling. In com- parison, specific fields, for example interaction design, seem like obvious routes for nurturing design commons, yet remain underexplored. The continuous advocacy for a human-centered world and in this, human-centered design products, shifts design interest towards the individual rather than the (human and non-human) collective. Processes meant to generate shared norms, values and intentions, have become overly homogenized. This might be explained by a fundamental misreading of the value of the commons in the broader sense, as well as the values that commoning technicities themselves can produce. Especially at times of social instabilities, focusing on the individual rather than collective, certainly undermines both the design questions and the design practices. Specifically, our observations confirm the ease with which the spatial disciplines have taken to the challenge of absorbing the commons in their praxis. The direct link of architecture, urban design, and interior design with the commons demon- strates socio-spatial sensibilities, as spatial designers appear more prone to negoti- ate socio-technical challenges, from their problematization to completion. This may be due to the nature of spatial disciplines, where the design of a single building, space, or installation, relies on a multitude of parties and processes within negoti- ated settings, whilst drawing from economy, structural engineering, building tech- nology and diverse (often conflicting) stakeholders to facilitate the design. We extend this question onto other design fields, presenting a challenge that hopefully will show promise over the coming years of design research, in fields as food design, experience design, transition design and alike. Naturally, the emergence of design fields with a renewed interest in socio- technical issues has recently shown promise in embedding a thinking of the com- mons as part and parcel of their domains. Disciplines such as social design and service design may provide fruitful grounds from which to further explore the fusion of commoning and design thinking. The redirection from single to 1 An Introduction to Design Commons
- 31. 14 multi- user, not only challenges the premise of product development, perhaps driven by single-sided objectives, but equally requires new and differentiated pedagogies in how such technicities are transferred through design knowledge. The premise of conceptualizing through the commons, coupled to how design groups themselves gather, share, communicate, or produce different settings, reframes the educational premise of the design commons completely. In our view, infusing design pedagogy with the design technicities of the commons will impact the foundations from which designers conceptualize, share and gain knowledge through research processes, out- come disseminations, fabrication models, and material prototyping that sets the tone for long-term thinking in a design community. Not surprisingly, by questioning the valance of the commons with the spatial disciplines, our conclusions further highlight their tendency to act as a device con- cept. The distinctions between design disciplines that choose to work with the com- mons versus those overlooking it, may be linked to the problem of ownership associated with design outcomes. Products, as the singular outcomes of product design, remain for the most part in shifting ownership between (mostly) individuals. The collective sharing of a product, in its use or as a resource, delivers intricacies of proprietorship, monetary values and tenure of use. Who takes ownership of a single product (say a watch or a chair), irrespective of its societal value or aim, remains a consequence of a product-to-individual and not product-to-collective association. The same holds true for the opposite process, where design notions, terms and con- cepts from domains such as graphic design, fashion design or architecture itself, are often metaphorically adopted from the domain of, for the lack of a better word, ‘common’ culture, that absorbs, dissects, and further places them away from the original intent. Whereas, surprisingly, other digital media (such as game design) that do involve multi-user scenarios in the values, engagements, and shared owner- ships, show greater affinities to the potentials that the commons hold. Irrespective the reason, we foresee the need for further investigations that examine such links and design-commons crossovers. Finally, the co-dependencies between the design fields, individual users, wider target groups, or their technological appropriation, still places design within a dilemma of delivering novel outcomes. Novel design proposals by default do not inscribe to what we define as the commons or its shared values sets. The challenges presented in the processes of adaptive reuse, recycling, reappropriating, or trans- forming existing elements, either as products or as material settings, may cause additional strain on the transformation processes, from one technicity to another. Added to this, and in particular relevant to reuse and recycling, other factors, such as heritage, can crystalize competing rationalities along those of the commons, amplifying the challenges of the same problem. Differentiated technicities required for the creation of new material settings, versus reprocessing existing material con- ditions into diverse configurations seem to shift the design approach per concept and per material scale. The reappropriation of architecture – the enveloping scale of a building or space, versus the scales of a specific product – presents distinctive challenges to the commons that demand a complex and transdisciplinary response. An account of the design commons that wishes to embrace their heterogeneity G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 32. 15 needs to be simultaneously transversal, non-reductionist and provide an adequate degree of granularity depending on the problem that if focuses. In this, we urge for the careful consideration of the commons, not as an all-encompassing design man- tra universally applied, but as a design position that requires careful consideration per setting, level of complexity and material conditions. Consequently, what becomes apparent through the ways that the four clusters of this book complement each other is the vast and diverse disciplinary fields that a study on design commons can coalesce. In this sense, and even though only the last cluster is explicitly titled so, the whole volume is an exercise in transdisciplinarity. As such, all the heterogeneous design technicities that are examined in each chapter make clear why a transdisciplinary approach is fundamentally necessary to address the complexities of our current realities. While interdisciplinary research entails the collaboration of different domains, it does so from a point of integration, where any of the disciplines involved share methodologies and theoretical frameworks to work towards a unified – thus, integrated – form of research. On the other hand, transdis- ciplinary research affords the production of methodological, theoretical and con- ceptual innovations, novel trajectories that emerge in order to address what binds each discipline: a shared problem. In other words, transdisciplinarity does not obey the constraints of any discourse, but, on the contrary, transforms them to productive opportunities. Examining the commons and their design technicities as a transdisci- plinary problem underlines its importance beyond the confines of any specific dis- cipline, focusing not on a world of design but rather on the complex processes, assumptions and responsibilities of designing a world. References Bollier, David, and Silke Helfrich. 2015. Patterns of Commoning. Amherst: Commons Strategy Group. Bromley, Daniel W. 1998. Determinants of Cooperation and Management of Local Common Property Resources: Discussion. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 80 (3): 665–668. Ciriacy-Wantrup, Siegfried von, and Richard Bishop. 1975. Common Property as a Concept in Natural Resources Policy. Natural Resources Journal 15 (4): 713–727. DeLanda, Manuel. 2006. A New Philosophy of Society. London: Continuum. Flusser, Vilém. 1995. On the Word Design: An Etymological Essay. Design Issues 11 (3): 50–53. Freire, Paolo. 2007. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Trans. Donaldo Pereira Macedo. New York: Continuum. Hardin, Garrett. 1968. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162: 1243–1248. Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri. 2009. Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Hennion, Antoine. 2016. For a Sociology of Maquettes. In Studio Studies: Operations, Topologies and Displacements, ed. Ignacio Farías and Alex Wilkie, 73–88. New York: Routledge. Kwinter, Sanford. 2007. Far From Equilibrium. Ed. Cynthia Davidson. Barcelona/NewYork:Actar. Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: University Press. 1 An Introduction to Design Commons
- 33. 16 ———. 1998. A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action: Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1997. American Political Science Review 92 (1): 1–22. ———. 2008. The Challenge of Common-Pool Resources. Environment (Washington, DC) 50 (4): 8–21. Ostrom, Elinor, Roy Gardner, and James Walker. 2008. Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Simondon, Gilbert. [1958] 2017. On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects. Trans. C. Malaspina and J. Rogove. Minneapolis: Univocal. ———. [2005] 2020. Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information. Trans. T. Adkins. Minneapolis: Univocal. Sohn, Heidi, Stavros Kousoulas, and Gerhard Bruyns. 2015. Introduction: Commoning as Differentiated Publicness. Footprint 16 (1): 1–8. Stavrides, Stavros. 2016. Common Space: The City as Commons. London: Zed Books. Stiegler, Bernard. [1994] 1998. Technics and Time 1: The Fault of Epimetheus. Trans. R. Beardsworth and G. Collins. Stanford California: Stanford University Press. G. Bruyns and S. Kousoulas
- 34. Part I Design, the Commons and the Social
- 35. 19 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 G. Bruyns, S. Kousoulas (eds.), Design Commons, Design Research Foundations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95057-6_2 Chapter 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to Save the Albanian National Theater Dorina Pllumbi Abstract This article discusses the struggles of commoning as a material engage- ment in Tirana, the capital of Albania, as it transitions from a totalitarian state socialist regime to a currently consolidating neoliberal one. It reflects upon the field of relations generated during the collective resistance to save the National Theater, which was brutally demolished in May 2020. The story of the theater is essential in understanding the ongoing suffocation of collective emancipatory initiatives gener- ated spontaneously in times of developmentalist pressure of a corrupt state-power- capital coalition which does not confine itself even to the material cultural heritage. The commoning process of the resistance challenges power relations while generat- ing new extra-institutional practices of care for the spatial and material conditions of the space and the human bodies affectively related to it. It contributes to a new understanding of collectivity inAlbanian society, an indispensable feature to achieve democracy. The theater building plays an active role in generating collective prac- tices, carrying a political and emotional load, that affect perpetual bonding rela- tions. The affective capacity of the material-human formation challenges the current material culture of demolition and construction in Tirana and the language around it. New architectural practices of resistance emerge as new ways of engaging in col- lective endeavors in city-making. Keywords Commoning · Material-human formation · Situatedness · Political transition · National Theater Albania · Resistance A contemporary Western revival of interest in the notion of the commons, often with enthusiasm, presents this concept as a promising niche of societal post- capitalist configuration, an alternative to neoliberal models (Havik and Pllumbi 2020; Sohn et al. 2015).Yet the commons remain fragile spaces under threat of new enclosures swallowed by the oppression of capital (Harvey 2011; Mies 2014). In D. Pllumbi (*) Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: D.Pllumbi@tudelft.nl
- 36. 20 places that have fragile democracies, these practices of commoning are attacked, intimidated and even eliminated (Federici 2010; Shiva 2020). The Albanian reality is one of those labelled as developing, meaning an acceler- ated version of progress, measured by economic growth; an everlasting pursuit of a Western abstract vision of newness, cleanness, glossiness. It is one of those realities with a very particular history in relation to collectiveness, because of the entrenched legacy of a Stalinist totalitarianism that lasted five decades. This experience cor- rupted the belief in the power of the collective, and yet, it may offer some lingering answers regarding the role of the state and the need to keep the collective process open. An over-control of the collective, as happened during the previous regime in Albania, would result in the elimination of possibilities and the restriction of free- dom, therefore, in the destruction of its essence. This article discusses the struggles of commoning as a material engagement in Tirana, the capital of Albania, as it transitions from a totalitarian socialist regime to a currently consolidating neoliberal one. The rupture from the previous regime shifted the orientation towards individualism, private initiatives, and privatization of public property, which has created a common belief that collective activities died with the communist experiment. I aim to point out that these practices are present and even resistant to the new neoliberal regime, paradoxically with an authoritarian face, that does not recognize them, and even attacks them. In particular, I reflect upon relational agencies generated during the collective resistance to save the National Theater in Tirana, a complex story that is essential in understanding the struggles of collectivity in Albania. The theater became a place of collective resistance to a developmentalist project that threatened the existence of the heritage building and all its material and spatial relations, collective memories and affiliations. The theater building was demolished in May 2020, amplifying these affective relations, which eventually turned out to be the most vulnerable. In the first part I discuss how collectivity as a notion was ideologically contami- nated in Albania during five decades of totalitarianism, and how this has been a favorable ground for neoliberal privatizing policies to be implemented. I point out how, during recent events, it is possible to recognize different forms of collective resistance against these policies. In the second part, I discuss the dynamics that unfolded during the commoning resistance for the theater building in Tirana. 1 An Ideologically Contaminated Collectivity The collective effort to save the theater building is particularly relevant in Albania, a country that experienced a harsh totalitarian regime, where the perception of col- lectivity is still vilified. Cooperativism is connected to the memory of the agrarian reform of 1945, when the peasant-land connection was destroyed through a process of collectivization of the land in order to control and manage it centrally, resulting in a failed model that lead to starvation and extreme poverty (Sokoli and Doluschitz 2019). In urban areas, private houses were confiscated, and other than state D. Pllumbi
- 37. 21 properties were almost fully eliminated. Cooperatives, collectivism and commonal- ity are all contaminated words that will take a while to be re-normalized in the Albanian vocabulary. Collectivism was presented as the main ideology that would penetrate every aspect of life, up to the point of eliminating any other belief. The image of the supreme leader had to supersede that of God.1 The implementation of the commu- nist ideology did not empower communities, recognize their autonomous character and freedom to self-organize and self-govern. On the contrary, the authoritarian state centrally controlled the economy, industry, culture and education of every community and individual (Woodcock 2007, 2016). The state apparatus appropri- ated the ideology of collectivity by capturing its relational aspect, therefore alienat- ing the relation of human-land, human-human, human-matter, by overlaying it with a controlling and paralyzing gaze. By doing so, the connection of the individual with the collective and the belief in it was corroded. In architectural practice it was no different; it was centrally controlled and pres- surized. Seen as the tool that would enable the materialization of the state ideology in the built environment, architecture had to express the spirit of socialist realism that penetrated every cultural aspect. Working under a politically oppressive regime, the figure of the architect did not have the possibility to be politically committed, to engage in discourse beyond the ideological party line (Kolevica 1997).2 With the persecution of well-known architects, the possibility for Albania to have politically and even theoretically committed architects who would question decisions on plan- ning and architecture, ended. The figure of the architect was reduced to that of a technician, and the school, also influenced by schools in the Eastern Bloc, gained a strong technical character. While design was performed within centrally controlled bureaus, construction had to meet economical optimization in times of scarcity, quite a challenge for a small country that in the last decade of state-socialism isolated itself from the entire world. The so-called aksione (community volunteering activities) were cen- trally organized forced volunteering days of working to construct the homeland, be it infrastructure, housing, or cultural buildings. Most citizens, regardless of their status, class or gender, and even young ages, were forced to perform this type of unpaid work, while the living conditions were precarious (Mëhilli 2017; fig. 26). 1 Freedom of religious practice was banned by law and Albania was declared an Atheist country by Constitution on 1976. Churches were substituted with Pallate te Kultures (Cultural Palaces) as places of propaganda art. The aim was to replace religious ideology to the political state-socialist ideology. On the relations of Albania with other countries of the Eastern Bloc see Mëhilli (2017). 2 This pressure was reinforced during the mid-70s with the persecution, and even incarceration, of dissident architects that dared to experiment with form. Their work was judged as being influenced by Western modernism in architecture, which was prohibited as it represented the Western imperi- alist capitalist world. Meanwhile in Albania, like in other totalitarian states, the party line was persistent in the aim to create a nationalist style that would highlight national identities. The incar- ceration of the architect Maks Velo in 1978 marks the most vicious aggression of the regime to architecture as a profession. 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 38. 22 This is a still fresh and entrenched memory associated with the notion of collectivity. Thinking with Hannah Arendt, we understand that totalitarianism eliminates the division between private and public spheres. While her concern is mainly the elimi- nation of the public sphere, Arendt sees the public and the private as crucial to each other’s existence. The private for her is the home of the public; it is the place for the individual to retreat in self-reflection, to then be able to appear in public again (Arendt 1998). The myth of the supreme leader had penetrated even into Albanian homes, where having a framed picture of the dictator, along with other family por- traits, became a common practice. Arendt explains: Totalitarian government, like all tyrannies, certainly could not exist without destroying the public realm of life, that is, without destroying, by isolating men, their political capacities. But totalitarian domination as a form of government … destroys private life as well. It bases itself on loneliness, on the experience of not belonging to the world at all, which is among the most radical and desperate experiences of man. (Arendt 1973, 475) Here she explains how terror paralyzes our relations and abilities to act in common, to be politically active and courageous, while at the same time damaging our need to retreat in private. She understands the public and private as existing in a dichoto- mous relationship. The public realm for Arendt is the common that keeps us con- nected. At the same time, while staying in this classic binary explanation of public-private realms (she also refers to classic examples like Rome and Athens), she does not identify a separate category for the commons. Nevertheless, when speaking about the importance of acting in public, she keeps in the background those near to us, like friends and family, and certainly those belonging to a com- munity (Brennan 2017). It was an orchestrated collectivism that forcibly replaced this public-private dichotomy in Albania during the totalitarian regime, while destroying collectiveness by seizing it. When addressing a contemporary revival of interest towards commons, Stavros Stavrides speaks about them as a third category of space, beyond public and private: “various levels and forms of proximity” can be recognized to act as agents for set- ting up the production of the commons (Stavrides 2016, 260). This approach under- stands commoning as having a transversal character, giving room to the individual and the collective, while operating at different scales and distances, going beyond dualisms of private/public, object/subject, individual/collective, nature/culture. The Albanian experience teaches us that an elimination of these dualisms without over- coming them can be damaging. The overlapping of a totalitarian form of one supreme power puts at risk the existence of commoning and the potential it has to emancipate. According to Silvia Federici, this is a continuous struggle for resis- tance. She argues that communalism comes as a necessity of coming together to resist forces of capitalism, but also as a reaction to the lack of the possibility to fully rely on the state itself. Therefore she identifies a need to re-enchant the world through the politics of the commons (Federici 2019). The attempt to capture, enclose and regulate from the outside of the commoning practices results in the suffocation D. Pllumbi
- 39. 23 of the common space and loss of its capacity to be both productive and to pro- duce itself. After five decades of centralized collectivism that over-controlled every single practice of daily life, like in other post-socialist countries, with the fall of the regime, a tendency in the complete opposite direction has been an understandable counter- reaction. Everything had to be redefined: the role of the state, the individual and the collective. The orientation towards individualism right after the fall of the regime has created a general idea of a total lack of commoning practices in city-making. There is a need to understand and delineate the difference between the state- communism experiment during the previous regime, and the extra-state commoning practices that manifested with the fall of the regime and that currently occur as a form of resistance against a new regime that is being established. During this transitional period, from 1991 to the present, different forms of com- moning can be recognized as playing a role in the city formation. Self-building, as a tradition but also inherited as an embodied capacity from the times of forced vol- unteering has been a commonplace after the 1990s. This time, free from the control of a supreme power, it is used, instead, for the immediate self-interest of the indi- vidual or one’s close circle. Although commonly considered informal and chaotic, these construction practices point to a material claim towards an architecture of the city by the common people, a reaction against the long-lasting oppression of an anomalous totalitarian state. The year 2006 marked the end of a laissez-faire period with the state initiating the legalization process of self-built structures and regaining control of the territo- ry.3 The last decade has seen a new neoliberal state consolidating its hold. Albania is now going through the installment of a new regime, a combination of first-stage capitalism in the milieu of consecutive corrupt administrations, with a weak, almost nonexistent social welfare, a growing gap of inequality, and total lack of entities to represent the interest of the powerless categories in the society. As a reaction to the pressure of the oligarchic concentration of power and capital and the pairing of the state with this power, the last decade has seen several instances of civil unrest as the society has started to wake up from its political apathy. In 2018, the new law for the higher education that would favor private universities and the commodification of the public ones triggered massive student protests that sparked hope in society at large. It gave another status to the protest as a possible instrument that can now be utilized in the public interest (Qori 2019). Different forms of activism for the pres- ervation of cultural and environmental heritage under threat have taken place, such as reactions against public-private-partnership management of archeological sites like Butrinti, activism for the economic rights of mine and oil workers, against planned hydroelectric power plants to be built over several wild rivers in Albania, feminist activism, and so on. All these are forms of commoning that are temporal 3 More on the legalization process in Potsiou, Chryssy A. 2010. Informal Urban Development in Europe – Experiences from Albania and Greece. United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), Nairobi: United Nations Printshop. 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 40. 24 but consistent, commoning with nature and culture, a constitution of human and non-human relations. 2 The Albanian Theater The replacing of the old theater with a brand new one would be part of a PPP (public-private-partnership) where a private developer would invest in a new theater while using two thirds of the public land to construct their private high-rise build- ings (Fig. 2.1). In this case, one third of the public land would be used for a new theater. The masterplan was designed by the architectural firm BIG, commissioned by the state-private coalition. Bjarke Ingels was in Tirana to present the project and was introduced as the most successful contemporary star-architect in the world.4 When the debate about the theater started to intensify in 2018, a group of artists and citizens started a civil resistance campaign which has unfolded in multiple forms of action. The group is named “Alliance for the Protection of the Theater”; I will refer to it as Aleanca. This triggered the creation of a community that started to take care of the building, practicing all sort of maintenance rituals and populating it with artistic activities. They guarded over the building day and night, even during the pandemic, until it was brutally demolished.5 4 Commissioning star architects is a strategy used for various projects in Albania. From the local architects this is seen as a way to silence the public debate on these projects. For more on the engagement of BIG in the Theater story see this open response letter published initially as Pllumbi (2020a). English version: Pllumbi, Dorina. 2020. Is Bjarke Ingels deeply naïf or a liar? Arkitekteza. http://www.arkitekteza.com/SQ/response-to-the-article-of-bjarke-ingels-published-in-politiken/. Accessed October 2020. 5 More on the history and the chronology of the resistance can be found here. Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage (2020). Fig. 2.1 Diagram produced by the author based on masterplan of BIG presented to the Albanian public and on the graphic interpretation that Aleanca did to this masterplan. (Source: Author) D. Pllumbi
- 41. 25 2.1 An Agential Material-Human Formation The picture I draw here is rooted in subjectivities generated by my own relation to the place and the collective struggle to save it. Its material condition, its cultural embodiment and the ecology of the practice of resistance that has unfolded in all its vulnerability, is emblematic of the character of commoning practices in a saturated reality like that of Albania (Fig. 2.2). My own relationship to the theater building and the resistance to save it has different levels. The building itself had always had an attractive force. As an undergrad in Tirana, like every architecture student who sharpens the senses on the material reality that surrounds them, the theater building was one of those artifacts with which I had a special encounter. Later, during my years of teaching at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Tirana, with students and colleagues, we had a yearly ritual of starting the second semester with a visit to several cultural buildings in Tirana, one of which was the National Theater.6 We would analyze the functionality of the place, the foyer, the seating area, the stage, the dressing rooms, and so on. No lecture in class could compare to the level of knowledge that the theater building would provide us. It was an open, welcoming and generous book, a simple and humble one. 6 Pllumbi (2020b). Fig. 2.2 After a clash with the police, Aleanca manages to occupy the Theater on July 24, 2019. From that moment on the building has been safeguarded around the clock by the activists for 10 months until its demolition. The whole resistance lasted 27 months. (Source: Gert Izeti) 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 42. 26 When listening to grieving voices for the loss of the theater, the details of these repeated encounters would come back to me with the same intensity. I heard people speaking about the scent of the building. In architecture school we never spoke about it. In the architecture history books no one speaks about the scent. How did we miss mentioning it? Furthermore, the red velvet of the theater hall, the stage that accommodated the freed word during the resistance, the breeze in the courtyard; how sweet and painful these sensations sound verbalized by the people close to the theater! I never thought that I would revisit these sensations in such times of shock when the building would be gone. As one of many people living far from Albania who at the same time were pres- ent at the theater building during the resistance, never before have I experienced the unique position of being so intensively in a place, although physically far from it. The theater was one of the places where I studied the commons in Tirana, the loud- est one compared to the other unnoticed places in the marginal areas of the city. Before the Covid-19 outbreak, I conducted visits and conversations with many of the citizens involved in the resistance. The intensive round-the-clock resistance was broadcast daily on social media, mainly Facebook, reaching out to every citizen, near and far, to those that could not join, for several reasons, and especially to those that did not have the courage to show up.7 Every single event was important, every single decision was communicated. My architect colleagues, including my former classmates, were doing activism in full force. Unfortunately, not all, but lots of architects were raising their voice against the demolition of the building. Finally, there was an opportunity to understand what acting collectively means in poststate- socialist Albania, and whether it still make sense to talk about collective acting. The discourse went beyond that of a building. We were speaking about a collec- tive formation of matter and human bodies. This formation was not only material; it was not only human. Never before has Tirana seen human bodies attached so affec- tionately to an edifice. It was so hard to detach these human beings from the build- ing that thousands of armed police bodies were required to do the job. The authorities seized the opportunity created by the global pandemic and struck in the early hours of the morning, thus avoiding the crowds.8 It was difficult to distinguish where boundaries of the material ended and where human flesh began. What kind of cona- tus is this that pushes human bodies to cling to the roof when looking at bulldozers approaching and armed troops forcibly bringing out other bodies from the building?9 7 Political parties in Albania have adopted an opportunistic approach to recruit membership by providing jobs to the party members in exchange of their blindly adherence to the political line. This is a tactic used by all the political parties, and widely spread in all fields, corrupting this way the freedom of political engagement of the citizens. Professional and even academic jobs, includ- ing those from the architectural field, are not immune to this phenomenon. 8 Van Gerven Oei (2020) and Di Liscia (2020). 9 In his prominent book Ethics, Spinoza refers to conatus as the driving force that is present within humans and things. It is this conatus that makes them act within their capacities and desires. The demolition started while there were people inside and at the rooftop of the building. Activists were forcibly brought out by armed troops without identification number, something confirmed by the Minister of the Interior Affairs. Time 02:55 of the video cited below shows actors D. Pllumbi
- 43. 27 It was something strongly relational, an affectionate entanglement with some rare agency. The material-human formation was generated by a mutual love between artists and theater that has gone on for decades. When endangered, this relation provoked the immediate attachment of more bodies in solidarity, caring and loving bodies, intelligent bodies, human and more-than-human bodies (in association with techno- logical equipment). We witnessed more than 2 years of resistance in the name of love, in the name of care, of freedom, of emancipation, of feeling alive. We met the spirits of our ancestors and the voices of our future grandchildren. We felt pieces tearing down from our souls when the theater was ripped apart.10 The debate on the fate of the building was characterized by all kinds of fluctua- tions. The politicians in power tried to denigrate it, to annihilate it. They tried to identify it as a one thing, but they knew it was more than one.11 The collective material-human formation kept on reconfiguring itself. “Unë jam Teatri” – “I am the theater” – was the motto of the initial campaign that attracted numerous citizens to identify themselves with the theater, with its struggle and its power; a resistance that transversally made room for the individual and the collective. Political parties, agents, and other organizations infiltrated to make use of the moment for their own political interest.12 Despite persistent attempts to annex it, the marvelous entangle- ment remained a multi, fairly autonomous, without converging into a one (Hardt and Negri 2004). It demonstrated a rising belief in the power of self-organization, while becoming an emblem of the struggles that organizing has in society as such. This made this material-human formation a multitude, with its strengths and weak- nesses. Without a strong and confined identity, as politically queer as it can be, it became a place of multiple affiliations: born as fascist, appropriated by the com- munists, a temporary colonial elitist entity, claimed and taken over by the people, the first house of Albanology, the womb of Albanian art, a theater of the people, an open door for all coming from the street, a place of retreat, used and abused, loved Juliana Emiri and Neritan Liçaj shouting out from the roof that this is an installation of a dictatorship. Komani and Musai (2020). 10 Mehdi Malkaj, well-known actor: “The theater was not demolished, it was ripped apart!” Report TV. 2020. I përlotur aktori Mehdi Malkaj: Populli është në gjumë, hienat e shembën Teatrin[cited2020October12].Availablefromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNjzK0SXEdk 11 The attempt to identify the protest as pertaining to the opposition party, was with the purpose of reducing the discourse into a polarized discussion of position-opposition. The opposition parties did support the resistance, and they took extensive room for their own rhetoric, but the resistance still remained plural, multiple, compound of a varied political spectrum. 12 Romeo Kodra, Albanian artist, expresses in his blog the frustration of participating in these pro- tests, like the one for the theater, because of the penetration of these forces that try to absorb the movement imposing their own political agenda, attempting to give it a one identity-profile, there- fore limiting the potential of these emancipatory moments to contribute for the democratization of the society. Kodra (2020). 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 44. 28 Fig. 2.3 Handwritten sign “Cultural Monument, Safeguarded by the People” that later was transformed into a big banner. Picture of the main entrance of the Theater. (Source: author, site visit on October 31, 2019) Fig. 2.4 Banner installed at the entrance of the courtyard stating “Cultural Monument, Safeguarded by the People.” (Source: author, site visit on November 1, 2019) D. Pllumbi
- 45. 29 and despised. A cultural monument, safeguarded by the people (Figs. 2.3 and 2.4).13 That explains how horrified the politicians in power were by its agency. That explains the urgency they had to kill it, to finish with its ever-growing power as soon as possible, in such a cowardly manner (Fig. 2.5).14 At the end, all we are left with is the Spinozist fascination of what a body (bodily formation) can do (Fig. 2.6). 13 The theater was built by an Albanian government affiliated with the Italian government at 1938–39, right before the occupation of Albania by the Italian fascist state. After the Second World War, at the very start of the installation of a new Albanian Republic of the People (that later turned out to be a State-Socialist Regime), while still in the spirit of the Anti-Fascist War, there was an appropriation of the theater by amateur theater groups of Çeta (GuerrillaAlbanian partisan groups), to then establish the Theater of the People. Later, in 1991, the institution was named as the National Theater. 14 The theater building had a light structure of a combination of concrete columns, prefabricated wood roof and an infill with composite material. If they really had to, it could have been possible technically to dismantle the structure, showing this way some respect for its history. The act of bulldozing was a clear act of brutality against the building and what it stands for. Fig. 2.5 Bird’s-eye view picture taken during the early hours of May 17, 2020. The demolition had started on 4:30. (Picture taken by drone. Source: Behaudin Dobi) 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 46. 30 2.2 Survival Struggles of an Ecology of Practice In the process of learning with the agent-actors involved in resistance commoning, I have been speaking and sharing thoughts constantly with my colleagues involved in the process, but also others that were part of the resistance group. With that, this contribution on the discourse remains a partial perspective that does not claim to tell absolute truths.15 Both Doriana Musai, architect and urban designer, and Kreshnik Merxhani, architect and heritage specialist, have been actively involved in the pro- cess of resistance. The adrenaline of activism has been a significant component that has affected our connections and actions. In October–November 2019 I visited the theater intensively for several days. It was a time when a Festival for Saving the Theater had already started. An open microphone was active every evening from the start of the resistance. The urban configuration of the theater site played a role in the spontaneous positioning of the microphone, which had started as a moving one. The U-shaped building had a central courtyard where the microphone was located. The 15 I have entered in conversation with some of the key figures of the group like the artists Neritan Liçaj, Edmond Budina, Juliana Emiri, and more. They always stressed that there is no leading group, but that this is a horizontal organization. Fig. 2.6 Picture taken during the early hours of May 17, 2020, taken by drone, showing citizens gathered in protest against the demolition. Several were beaten and arrested. (Source: Behaudin Dobi) D. Pllumbi
- 47. 31 microclimate of the court was very favorable for the gatherings, with the presence of pine trees and a pool; it was a pleasant place to be in summer. While it was open to another square and pedestrian area, at the same time, it had a kind of intimacy (Fig. 2.7). Keeping the microphone in working order was a struggle in a situation when the electricity had been cut off. It was the initiative of an individual to volun- tarily bring all the phonic equipment, two power generators, and maintain them to make sure that the microphone was on every single evening during the whole period, rain or shine.16 The microphone became “the thermometer of the day, the real voice of the protest in Albania, beyond what is shown in the media, which is all filtered,” says Ervin Goci, an activist and lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Communications at the University of Tirana.17 This microphone became the place of convergence of all the protests, from the students to the inhabitants of a displaced community (at the Unaza e re neighborhood, known as Astiri), to personal individ- ual indignations. Many had found psychological support at this microphone. It became a form of collective therapy (Fig. 2.8). 16 Doriana Musai in conversation with the author and Ervin Goci, 8 November 2019 at the Theater site in Tirana. 17 Ervin Goci in conversation with the author and Doriana Musai, 8 November 2019 at the Theater site in Tirana. Fig. 2.7 The intimacy of the courtyard. (Source: author; site visit on November 17, 2019) 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 48. 32 Aleanca included intellectuals and professionals of different fields, who worked intra-dimensionally, where the roles were not fixed within their professional bound- aries. There were several clusters to be recognized within the group, specialized in law, journalism, architecture and engineering, sociology, and so on. Independent researchers outside of Aleanca like historians were also involved in shaping the public debate. The front line of artists conducted the resistance through art perfor- mances, exhibitions, and speeches. This kind of convergence from different fields is something quite exemplary for the Albanian reality. And then, there were the citi- zens, among whom the most prominent group was a number of retirees, who took care of the building and the activists, showing their love and resistance through cleaning and cooking. Edmond Budina, a well-known artist, speaks passionately about how physical work, cleaning and maintenance formed a moment of connec- tion for him and the group, to perceive the place as their own, feel a sense of belong- ing (Fig. 2.9).18 The clusters of volunteers shared ways of working, creating a common situated knowledge that grew in the everyday practice of the resistance. Doriana Musai, for example, explains how the involvement within the community gave her the oppor- tunity to experiment in other mediums beyond her field of expertise. She was able 18 Edmond Budina in conversation with the author, 16 November 2019 at the Theater site, Tirana. Fig. 2.8 Gathering around the microphone continued every evening throughout the 27 months of the resistance. (Source: author, site visit on October 31, 2019) D. Pllumbi
- 49. 33 to explore new tools and roles, not only as an architect, but also became one of the curators of the Festival for Saving the Theater, taking care of several aspects of the artistic performances, visual exhibitions, and so on (Fig. 2.10). In collaboration with a geodetic engineer she conducted a laser scan of the building that provided a highly detailed virtual model of its physicality. Doriana has been one of the most active agents that have given voice to the material conditions of the building through pho- tography. “The more I stay with the building, the more I discover parts of it that have particularities worth capturing,” she stated.19 She was inside the building at the moment of the attack and broadcast it live on social media, which enabled a plain transmission of the moment of shock to the wider public, which otherwise would not have been aware of the brutal level of intervention of the police forces. The architect and heritage specialist Kreshnik Merxhani shares how a group of architects and architecture students were involved in the process. He is an activist- architect who constantly fights for heritage causes in Albania. At the theater he explains how at the very beginning they conducted a detailed survey of the building. He compared the impact that two survey techniques used – laser scan and hand drawing – had on the connection with the material conditions of the building. For 19 Doriana Musai in conversation with the author and Ervin Goci, 8 November 2019, at the Theater site, Tirana. Fig. 2.9 Side entrance of the theater, a niche where the activists were stationed. (Source: author, site visit on November 17, 2019) 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 50. 34 him, the hand drawn survey was a thrilling experience and a very special moment of encounter with the building. It played a role in the resistance engagement: We needed to get in touch with the building. When some officials show up and want to destroy it you can ask them: ‘Have you ever been inside? Because I have. Have you been at the roof? Have you seen the authentic trusses?’ You have to go up there, to feel the magic of the space under the roof, just like in Gjirokaster. It is a magical feeling in itself. It is only a thin wooden skin that divides you from the world, but it has created a whole other world inside. The way the light comes in, that cut on the roof, the wood, the sound of your steps, the smell. That’s architecture. That’s how you experience architecture.20 Kreshnik recognizes that it is this atmosphere that one senses, that makes us the greatest defender of the theater, doing the outmost to save it. “How can they remove these feelings from you? How can you allow them to erase in you the sensations that this building provokes? Not another building, but this one.”21 20 Kreshnik Merxhani in conversation with the author, 12 November 2019, at the Theater site. Gjirokaster is a city in the south of Albania, and its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage. The architect has the experience of working for several years with projects for the preservation of its monuments, an affective experience of care for the past, present and the future. He describes this as the most influential experience of his life, which has brewed in him the love for authentic archi- tecture and the inner will to fight for it when in danger. 21 Ibid. Fig. 2.10 Many performances were organized for the Festival for Saving the Theater, like plays, monologues, exhibitions, and so on. Pictured on stage areAdi Krasta and Eldon Luarasi, son of Edi and Mihal Luarasi, actor icons of the Albanian Theater. (Source: Gert Izeti) D. Pllumbi
- 51. 35 The detailed laser scan of the building gave the community a reassurance that even if the worst were to happen and the building would be gone, they would at least have its virtual model. After the demolition, renderings coming out of this scan would become visual material for the group to articulate the demand for justice, asking that the building be rebuilt as it was, where it was.22 The architects saw an opportunity to apply for the Europa Nostra yearly program “7 Most Endangered” heritage sites, an application proved successful as the build- ing was selected as a European heritage site at risk.23 Kreshnik shares how the pro- cess of finding financial opportunities for the project, other than waiting for what politics decides, has demonstrated that alternative ways are possible, meaning that architects can see the profession as a mission instead of just a service to a client and politicians in power. Recently, in Albania, architects have been heavily criticized as being tools in the hands of politics and capital. Different ways of engagement in public causes would help restore belief in the profession. Understandably, the debate for the theater has triggered an ethical discourse regarding the role of the architect in the society. Many architects have been vocal in their support for the building and the resistance community, while some others in administrative and political positions enabled the demolition through their signa- tures. Some well-known architects who initially were against the demolition have experienced pressure from political powers. Two of the main architectural associa- tions, the Albanian Association of Architects and Albanian Union of Architects and Urban Planners, gave declarations against the demolition of the theater at the begin- ning of the discussion and, more likely, the first one was pressured to keep silent afterwards. This shows how vulnerable the position of the architect is in these situ- ations, how limited and manipulated their professional freedom is when confronted to oppressive economic and political interests. The power struggle that can be rec- ognized is not only in terms of material violence to the city but also limitation of the possibilities of professional engagement with minor voices, other than those in power. The erasure of the theater, apart from protests, triggered both domestic and inter- national reactions that occupied television broadcasts, written and social media. The prime minister attempted to soothe the shock effect caused by the brutal act of demolition. That morning, while the demolition was in progress, he published on his Facebook page renderings of the theater designed by BIG and declared in parlia- ment that the demolition was not a big deal as they may replicate the historical building at some other site in the city, as a museum for children. He even used a purist language of rebuilding it as per its initial design by the architect Giulio Bertè, 22 Will return to this discussion later in the article. 23 EuropaNostra (2020). Several other organizations for the heritage showed their support for the saving of the building. SIRA and Do.Co.Mo.Mo. had also appealed for the saving of the building. DoCoMoMo (2018, 2020). 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 52. 36 eliminating the changes made to it over time.24 On the other side, the community that resisted for 27 months against the demolition articulated the demand to rebuild the theater where it was and how it was. The public debate on the future of the site is currently reduced to this binary discussion of two camps, those demanding the rebuilding of the theater, and those in power pushing the initial plan that enabled its demolition and the public land grab by private developers.25 Unfortunately, the the- ater building has become a political trophy, the victim of a transitional moment of a society that aspires to democratize itself but struggles to achieve it in its integrity. At this point, the demolished theater demands justice and dignity, just like those bodies that affectionately attached to it. With the loss of the theater building, the different constituent parts of Aleanca followed different reaction paths. The building enabled the convergence of people with different affiliations. The elimination of the building exerting disproportionate force of the state lead to the un-powering of the collective formation, although several new activist figures entered the political public debate. 2.3 Politically and Emotionally Loaded Matter In 1938–39 when Albania had a close connection to Italy – which later transformed to the occupation of Albania by the fascist Italian state – prefabricated pieces of the theater building were transported from Italy to be mounted in Tirana, as if they were installing pieces of Italian colonialism, planting modernism, giving a western face to the ottoman city of the time. A building of this kind served a new Albanian elite and the Italian invaders. And yet, the less mentioned feature of the history of the theater was that of the re-appropriation by “the people” during the very first years after Second World War, as Romeo Kodra puts it, beautifully “evidencing its funda- mental value, … the power of the poorest to convert a symbolic building of coloni- zation in a symbolic building of culture.”26 Edmond Budina, when asked why he is such a passionate defender of the theater, explained how this theater is a place that has the potential to emancipate the society, to be a model of autonomy and direct democracy, become the theater that people feel as theirs, that cultivates a sense of common ownership. He explains how during the resistance, they have encouraged those activist-amateurs who wanted to achieve their life’s dream of performing in 24 Exit.al. https://exit.al/en/2020/05/21/prime-minister-says-government-will-rebuild-albanias- national-theater-for-kids-to-visit/. Accessed October 2020. 25 The media, which is also a reflection of the political power influences, has its contribution to reduce the discourse in these two binaries and the association of them with the two political major formations, position VS opposition. 26 Kodra (2020). The historical building is the material witness of important moments in the Albanian history. A dark one, but important to be witnessed, is the 1945 occurrence of special trials that condemned with death important figures that were against the installation of the totalitarian regime of the dicta- tor Enver Hoxha. D. Pllumbi
- 53. 37 front of a public, to experiment with acting on the stage themselves. The theater became their place of becoming and entanglement with others and the building.27 Beyond the physicality of the building, its aesthetics, its form, there is an array of historical practices, techniques, research, debates, exchanges, transportations, labor, and power relations that are embedded in its materiality (Thomas 2007). The recognition of these social and material practices that have made the building come to life, to then be appropriated and transformed, is substantial to avoid its fetishiza- tion. Matter is loaded with memory and at the same time has knowledge embodied in it. Crucial to the discourse is the need to read stories that matter has to tell, and to craft a new material language. The theater building came to life in the times of Italian autarky, when there was a heated debate and experimentation on the techniques and materials to be used to glorify the image of the Italian Fascist era and at the same time to satisfy the ambi- tion for self-sufficiency (Avilés 2009; Menghini 2013). The theater is one of a series of buildings erected at the same period in Tirana, while it simultaneously was differ- ent from its coevals because of its experimental construction technique and lack of monumentality. The Italian presence in giving a modern Western face to Tirana has been extensively discussed (Gismondi 2012). The monumental buildings were adopted during the post-war socialist regime, although they represented the oppo- site ideology. Both regimes, fascist and state-socialist, had monumentality and self- sufficiency as their central concern (Mëhilli 2017). The struggle to find construction techniques that would respond to these ambitions is also a common characteristic. Populit, an ecological and acoustic material which was used as the infill of the struc- tural frame of the theater building, seems to have been an attraction even for the socialist technicians that were trying to adopt low-cost, high-quality techniques as part of their attempt to master fabrication and standardization: [Populit] was a high-resistance composite made of wood shavings bound with cement, which could be pressed to obtain relatively lightweight slabs providing durability and insu- lation. Populit seems to have arrived in Albania from the Italians before the Second World War, though the details are obscure. Some accounts mention the involvement of an Italian engineer by the name of Dario Pater, known to Mussolini’s wife, and a fixture at Villa Torlonia, Il Duce’s residence. The Fascist regime reveled in material innovations that showed Italian ingenuity and self-reliance, so populit fit into an obsession with giving autarky material form. (Mëhilli 2017, 179) Interestingly enough, as pointed out by Kreshnik Merxhani, celenit, a new contem- porary patented ecological material, with similar composition, is used nowadays in the newly renovated Opera and Ballet Theater in Tirana which is promoted as one of the successful projects of the current administration.28 Here it is possible to dis- tinguish the double standard of the language, when principally the same material is 27 Edmond Budina in conversation with the author, 16 November 2019, at the Theater site. 28 Merxhani, Kreshnik. 2019. “Kjo është serioze”, arkitekti Merxhani: Me pupulit po restaurohet dhe Opera, është i mirë a helmues. Dosja.al. https://dosja.al/kjo-eshte-serioze-arkitekti-merxhani-me-pupulit-po-restaurohet-dhe- opera-eshte-i-mire-a-helmues/. Accessed October 2020. 2 Commoning as a Material Engagement of Resistance: The Struggle to…
- 54. 38 denigrated in the case of the theater building, and praised in the case of a project brought about by the administration itself. The forefront of the rhetoric to devaluate the theater building was extensively sustained by the allegedly degraded material condition, a result of the decay intentionally left to happen due to the lack of main- tenance. Populit was constantly denigrated, being labelled as tallash (sawdust), implying that it was weak, had no good bearing properties and posed a risk to the health of users, because of the presence of mold and probably asbestos (Fig. 2.11).29 The presence of asbestos was never proven by any technical report, although the sickness of some actors was speculatively blamed on the material. Even if asbestos were found, we known that it is not a reason to demolish a building, when its removal is a commonly known practice. The intentionally offensive language used towards the material was associated with a derogatory depiction of the defenders of the building as being emotional, non-rational artists who romanticize everything old. They were accused of stopping progress and hating everything new. The more the building and its matter was attacked with this populist language, the more capa- cious the agency of the material-human formation became throughout its resistance. 29 Several politicians debunked the material in videos or reactions on Facebook. Deputy major of Tirana, Arbjan Mazniku, appeared propagating the bad properties of the material, holing and refracting it when speaking, min 1:00. Video appeared on the Facebook page of the Prime Minister. https://www.facebook.com/edirama.al/videos/985013495163240 The day after the demolition the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, continued to carry Populit in an interview in the popular TV show Opinion: RTV Klan. 2020. Opinion – Erion Veliaj: Shembja e teatrit! (18 maj 2020). [cited 2020 October 12]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y297-McaHHUt=2077s Fig. 2.11 The mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, appeared in several television studious holding the material populit in his hands, alleging that it was tallash (sawdust). Here he is on the TV Show Opinion of May 18, 2020, on the national television station RTV Klan. (Source: YouTube https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y297-McaHHUt=2077s) D. Pllumbi
- 55. Another Random Document on Scribd Without Any Related Topics
- 56. a precipice on the other. As we mounted slowly and cautiously up the path, every nerve was at tension and every sense on the alert. Now and then, as the Persian drivers shouted and urged the frightened horses with voice and whip to face the slippery rising ground, one of the animals would slip, and for a second or two one's heart was in one's mouth. In spite of every effort we lost three pack- horses before we won the summit. A slip on the glassy surface, a couple of frightened plunges in the loose snow near the edge, and then the unfortunate creatures disappeared over the side, falling upon a lower spur four hundred feet beneath us. One of the horses that we lost in this way was loaded with my personal effects. The presents that I was taking back to my friends, some beautiful turquoises from the Tiflis mines, as well as the Russian furs, the Russian leather cigar-cases, and the other keepsakes that the warm- hearted officers in Erzeroum had given me, all vanished with that hapless pack-horse into some inaccessible ravine far below the Kopdagh peak. However, all the Persian drivers came through safely, and there were no missing faces in our party when we reached the summit, nine thousand feet above the level of the sea. The widow was still with us, numbed with the cold, exhausted with fatigue, and half shaken to death on her pack-saddle, but voluble as ever, and, like the person in the Greek play, full of groans and not devoid of tears. Just as we neared the summit I saw a Turkish woman climbing slowly and painfully up the track; but when we got to the shelter- house erected on the crest of the mountain, I lost sight of her. As we resumed our march, I noticed tracks in the snow in front of us, and drew the attention of Williams the dragoman to the impressions which had evidently been made by a woman. The dragoman disappeared for ten minutes on a tour of exploration, and when he returned he brought back a strange piece of intelligence. A Turkish baby had been born in a shed near the shelter-house while we were there, and the mother, whom we had seen climbing the pass, was already walking off with her newborn infant to her own village five
- 57. miles away across the snow. Surely the cares of maternity lie lightly on those hardy Turkish mothers in the mountains of Asia Minor. As may be guessed, we found a good deal of difficulty in replenishing our commissariat during this eventful journey. The Turkish troops had pretty well swept the board; and if the villagers had not hidden away some of their scanty stock from the foraging parties, we should have come off very badly. We managed to get eggs occasionally en route, and onions were also obtainable. I used to stuff my pockets with these delicacies and munch them raw. I found them very sustaining, and I have no doubt that my companions when they ventured near me could testify that my diet was strong. When we reached the village at the foot of the Kopdagh where we were to camp for the night, we were all ravenously hungry, and as I shot a keen glance round the village in search of supplies I espied a kid. It was a very nice-looking kid, and it frisked and gambolled most alluringly. I slipped off my pack-horse, and approached the kid in a friendly manner that disarmed suspicion. Then I grabbed it by the ear, drew my big clasp knife, and cut its throat on the spot. I skinned it and cleaned it with my own experienced hands, and Williams the dragoman made an excellent ragoût. I gave the owner of the kid a Turkish lira as compensation for his loss, which was truly our gain, for the kid was a succulent little creature, and tasted very much like venison. We could not have travelled fast under the most favourable conditions, and hampered as we were by the Spanish widow our progress became very slow indeed. It was not an easy task, even for one accustomed to riding, to remain on the wooden pack-saddle when a rough horse was plunging about in the snow; but for the Spanish widow it was literally impossible—a fact which she demonstrated by falling off five times during the journey over the Kop. It always happened in the same way. The hind legs of her pack- horse would slip down in the loose snow up to the hocks, while the fore feet remained steady for just one second on a harder patch, so that the animal's back described an angle of forty-five degrees with the surface of the ground. During that one second the widow seized
- 58. the opportunity of slipping off backwards over the horse's tail; and so quickly did she accomplish the feat that the watchful Williams, whom I specially told off, much to his disgust, to look after her, only arrived in time to pick her up. The sight of that middle-aged, sallow- faced Spanish person, in short skirts and blue goggles, sitting helplessly in the snow while Williams patiently collected her once more, would have made us laugh heartily were it not for the damnable iteration of the occurrence. The presence of the widow caused us much annoyance whenever we camped for the night, because sleeping accommodation was usually scanty, and we always had to find a room for the lady before we turned in ourselves. Once, when we reached the village where we were going to camp for the night, we found that there were only two sleeping-rooms available for the whole party, so that we had to give one to the widow, and camp—all five of us—in the other. First we showed the lady to her apartment, and then we went to look at our own. It was not a cosy bedroom, with French bedsteads, dimity curtains on the windows, and roses creeping up the walls outside. On the contrary, it was a small, square room, that would have made an excellent dog-kennel. The floor was of mud, and in a corner there was a heap of dirty straw, on which lay two dead Turkish soldiers who had died of confluent small-pox. We put the bodies outside the house, and Denniston, Stoker, Morisot, and myself, with Williams the dragoman, all went to sleep on the straw. As we travelled along day after day the glare on the snow was very trying to the eyes; and though we all wore blue goggles, we suffered a good deal of inconvenience, while our faces were dreadfully blistered by the sun. The Persian headman was always wanting to stop and rest his horses; so that what with perpetually working at him to keep him up to the mark, pacifying the Spanish widow, and foraging for our daily bread, we had plenty of occupation en route. All our drivers of course were eager to rob us whenever the opportunity offered; and in addition to the furs and turquoises which I had already lost through a pack-horse going over the precipice, I was also deprived of two very fine cats from the province of Van. I
- 59. had purchased these creatures, which were very much like Persian cats, in Erzeroum, and I had hired a pack-horse specially to carry them. They were transported in a wooden box fixed to the pack- saddle, and Williams fed them with milk whenever we halted at a village. A couple of days before we reached Trebizond, however, my beautiful cats disappeared; and the only consolation that was vouchsafed me for my bereavement was the vague lie of a Persian driver, who averred that they had escaped from their box during the night. Of course he had planted them somewhere for subsequent conversion into ill gotten piastres. When we commenced to get down towards Trebizond, we left the snow behind us on the mountains, and entered a tract of well timbered country, which was looking its best in the first flush of the early spring. The sides of the hills were gorgeous with pink cyclamen, and with a beautiful blue bulb which I could not identify. At last we entered the avenue of pear trees which were laden with juicy fruit when I passed up to Erzeroum six months previously. When I retraced my steps to Trebizond with new companions, I found the pear trees in full bloom. Since I had seen them bending under the burden of the ripening fruitage, fire and sword and frost and fever had brought many hundreds of men to death before my eyes, and I myself had been down to the very borders of the Valley of the Shadow. But now the war was over, the winter was done, and the scent of the white pear blossoms that filled all the valley blended with the first faint fragrance of the breezes from the ever nearing waters of the Black Sea. Trebizond at last!
- 60. CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. We fly from the Widow—Arrival at Constantinople—English Philanthropy—The Baroness Burdett-Coutts—First Acquaintance with a well known Actress—Osman Pasha back again—The Turkish Skobeleff—A much perforated Paletot—Captain Morisot's Career—A Romantic Escape—On Board the Gamboge—We reach Smyrna—Mr. and Mrs. Zohrab—A Sympathetic Englishwoman— Zara Dilber Effendi—Back in London—Patriotic Ditties—An Incredulous Music-hall Proprietor—Non é Vero—Bowling out a Story-teller. We had time to call on Mr. Biliotti again, and to thank him for all his kindness; and then we went on board the Simois, which was ready to cast off her moorings and head out for Constantinople. Our Spanish widow was consistent to the last. The real hardships of the journey had not improved her temper; and when we resolutely declined to pay her passage to Constantinople in the steamer, she cursed us up and down Trebizond, each and severally, with the comprehensive particularity that was devoted to the historic cursing of the Jackdaw of Rheims. She was indeed that rare—or somewhat rare—phenomenon, an ungrateful woman. When we reached Constantinople the whole place was full of excitement, for the Russian army was at San Stefano, only a few miles away, and Pera was almost like a Russian town. Every day hundreds of Russians might be seen clanking up and down the streets in full uniform, when they came in on leave from San Stefano.
- 61. English philanthropy was displayed as generously at this stage as it had been throughout the entire course of the war, and English gold was freely spent on the relief of starving and fever-stricken refugees from the Turkish provinces as well as on the sick and wounded troops. We got into touch with the philanthropic scheme undertaken by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who had sent out a large sum of money for the relief of the refugees; and we also met Mr. William Ashmead-Bartlett, the administrator of the fund, who afterwards married the baroness. He was ill with typhoid fever contracted from some of the refugees, and was under treatment at the English hospital, where his brother (now Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett) was looking after him. Denniston, Stoker, and I paid a visit of inspection to the temporary hospitals established with the money supplied by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, and furnished a report upon them. It is to Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett that I owe my first introduction to a very charming American lady, who has since become known to a wide circle through her career on the stage. When I first met her she was an extraordinarily pretty woman, and she and her husband were on their honeymoon trip. He was a very gentlemanly man, with a rather retiring disposition; while she was about twenty years of age, and a perfect model of youthful womanhood. Every glance of her brightly flashing eyes and every line of her finely moulded figure told of bounding life and vivacity. Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett and I saw a good deal of her and her husband for a week or two. We had lunch together often, and took part in several picnics up the Bosphorus, in that spring-time nineteen years ago, when the blue waters of the strait and the bright eyes of La belle Americaine laughed in harmony, while Europe was waiting with beating heart for the verdict—peace or war. I met the B—— P——s again on board the steamer which took me away from Constantinople. Then our paths in life divided, and I had almost forgotten the vivacious American lady, when one evening a year or two ago I dropped into the Princess's Theatre in Melbourne to see Sardou's great play La Tosca. In the actress who was playing the name part I recognized my acquaintance of the stirring times of the war. It was Mrs. B—— P——.
- 62. Osman Pasha, who had been a prisoner of war in Russia, had been sent back into Turkey at the cessation of hostilities, and I went up to call on him at the Seraskierat. He was never a very communicative man, and the mental strain which the magnificent defence of Plevna and ultimately the tragic fall of the town imposed upon him seemed to have deepened his natural reserve. However, he gave me a hearty welcome, and appeared to be much interested in my account of our doings in Erzeroum. I told him that if war broke out again on a larger scale than before, I would return to my old comrades; and I said that if I ever came back to Constantinople, I would like to bring him a little present from England. When I asked him what he would choose, he said that there was nothing which he would like so much as a real English saddle and bridle. Osman Pasha was a thorough soldier in his love for a first-class equipment, and I was sorry that I never had the opportunity of seeing him again to make him the present. Dear old Hassib Bey, the principal medical officer in Plevna, was quite affected when he saw me again, and we had a great chat over old times. Tewfik Pasha, who was the Skobeleff of the Turkish army, was living in a house at Galata, and I went to call on him there. When I entered the room, he was deeply moved, and embraced me warmly. Tewfik was always in the forefront of the battle while I was in Plevna; and when the memorable attack was delivered in which he recaptured the Krishin redoubts from Skobeleff, it was Tewfik who headed the column of assault and cheered the Turks on to victory. He seemed to bear a charmed life; for in spite of all the hot fighting that he had done, he had come through the campaign without a scratch. When I mentioned that he had been extraordinarily lucky in all his fighting, he motioned to his soldier servant who was in the room to take down a big military paletot which hung on the wall. The man took down the overcoat which was the garment that Tewfik Pasha had worn all through the siege. It was fastened down the front with frogs instead of buttons, and was provided with ample skirts that would blow about in the wind when the coat was not
- 63. fastened securely. At Tewfik's request I examined it, and counted no fewer than eleven different bullet-holes through the cloth. In some cases no doubt one bullet had made two holes; but it was evident that on a good many different occasions the gallant soldier who wore the garment was literally within an inch of death. Captain Morisot and I were invited to go to dinner one day at San Stefano with a party of Russian officers; but, much to my disappointment, something interfered with the engagement, and I missed the only chance I ever had of meeting the famous Skobeleff, who was then quartered at the little port on the Dardanelles. I found Morisot a delightful companion; and now that we were not oppressed with hospital duties, I had plenty of time to enjoy his society. His career indeed was a most romantic and interesting one. He had been shut up in Metz with Bazaine during the Franco- Prussian war, seven years earlier; and when the much criticised marshal capitulated, Morisot became a prisoner of war with the rest of the garrison, and was sent away to Stettin on the Baltic. Though the prisoners were carefully watched, Morisot, who spoke English like an Englishman, managed to arrange a plan of escape; and one dark night he and another French officer eluded the guards, and pulled out in a dingy to a small Scottish schooner, trading between Glasgow and Stettin. The skipper, who was a braw mon fra Glasgie, and hated the Prooshians with a deep and deadly hatred, received Morisot and his companion with enthusiasm, and landed them after a fair passage at Copenhagen, where they were given quite an ovation. The Schleswig-Holstein affair was still fresh in the minds of the Danes, and they were delighted at the opportunity of doing honour to men who had drawn the sword against Germany. Morisot afterwards went to England; and when the Russo-Turkish campaign broke out, he hurried to Constantinople in search of further adventures. Animated as he was by the true spirit of a soldier of fortune, Morisot found a scope for his energies afterwards in the ideal field of military adventure. Ex Africa semper aliquid novi, wrote an old historian; and the dashing young Frenchman,
- 64. recognizing the truth of the remark even in these days, went to the Cape. A feeling was creeping over me that it was high time I had a rest after all the storm and stress of battle; and when a letter came to me one day from my mother, who was in England, I packed up my things on a sudden impulse and stepped on board the Messageries steamer Gamboge. Among my fellow passengers were Mr. and Mrs. B—— P——, who were bound on a trip through the Holy Land, and left us at Smyrna. I also met again Admiral Sir William Hewitt, who had entertained us on board his ship the Achilles before I went to Erzeroum. He and I occupied the same cabin on the voyage. At Smyrna I found our old friend Mr. Zohrab with his wife. Mrs. Zohrab was a dear, kind, motherly Englishwoman; and when she saw me, the thought of the sufferings that we had all gone through in Erzeroum and the fate which had fallen upon so many of the people whom she knew quite overcame her. She flung her arms round my neck, and burst into tears. Of course Mr. Zohrab was very anxious to hear all that had happened to us since he left Erzeroum, and whether we were comfortable in the house that he was obliged to desert. I told him that we did full justice to his provisions and his wines; and the expression of his face was quite pathetic when I described the delightful little dinner parties that we gave to the Russian officers out of his ample stores. Poor old Zohrab! He listened with much the same feelings that Ulysses might have had when the island princes, over-bold, were feasting on his substance and the steam of the roasting beef (which the poet avers is dear to the gods) rose up in his lordly halls. Recollections of Osman Pasha's ball at Widdin came back to me when I met at Smyrna Zara Dilber Effendi, the skilful entertainer who arranged all the details of that never to be forgotten function. He and I spent the afternoon together, and had much to tell each other. The sight of this polished and dignified gentleman carried me back to my first experiences in Turkey, and his face was almost the last that I saw before I went on board ship again, and said good-bye for
- 65. ever to that strange empire where the glow of romance and chivalry and the pure flame of passionate patriotism shone among the gathering shadows that have since almost obscured the light of other days. When I reached London, I found all England ringing with the tidings of the fighting, and there were plenty of evidences of the interest taken in the political situation. The music-halls, where one may touch the pulse of popular feeling, were crowded every night with audiences who tumultuously applauded the patriotic ditties that were encored over and over again, especially the famous song which set forth that The Russians shall not have Constantino-o-ple. I happened one night to stroll into the newly built Canterbury Theatre of Varieties, which, by means of the novelty of a sliding roof, combined with a programme illustrating scenes in the campaign which was just concluded, drew big crowds nightly. One of the items on the programme was a realistic scene depicting the taking of the Grivitza redoubt by the Russians, and I watched the gallant supers with mingled feelings as they charged home upon the cardboard bayonets. The scene was capitally done, and there was a prodigious expenditure of ammunition, which the audience applauded mightily. After the performance I sent my card round to Mr. Villiers, who was the proprietor of the show, intimating that I would like to see him. A tall, rather good-looking man, in the elaborate evening dress of a prosperous theatrical manager, and wearing an enormous diamond in his shirt front, made his appearance, and listened quietly while I complimented him upon the realism of the entertainment. I told him that it was really a very creditable show, but that there were one or two points in which it might be improved, and that, as I was the only Englishman in Plevna during the attack, I could give him some hints which would make the representation more accurate historically, while at the same time not impairing the spectacular effect. Mr. Villiers, who, by the way, was the uncle of my friend Fred Villiers, the war correspondent, did not seem very enthusiastic. In fact, his demeanour was distinctly discouraging. I felt that he had something to say, and waited anxiously for his answer. Well, sir, he remarked,
- 66. looking me straight in the face while he twiddled his heavy gold watch-chain, I am not going to say that I don't believe you; but you are the eleventh man who has come round here with exactly the same story. I was crushed, and bowed myself out from the presence of the potentate, almost wondering whether I really ever had been to Plevna. That there were plenty of impostors about, and that Mr. Villiers had ample ground for being suspicious of casual strangers professing to have Turkish military experience, I soon discovered for myself. I happened to be travelling up to Scotland a couple of days afterwards, when a gentlemanly looking individual got into the smoking carriage with me, and we fell to chatting upon the current topics of the day. The stranger began to interest me vastly, when he turned the conversation dexterously into a discussion of the Russo- Turkish campaign, and informed me that, though an Englishman, he had served in the artillery under Osman Pasha, and had been present in Plevna during the siege. I let him go on for fully a quarter of an hour recounting his apocryphal exploits, and then I thought it was time to speak. Well, sir, I said, it is a most extraordinary thing to think that you could have told that story to any other man in England except myself, and he might have believed you. I gave him my name, and told him that I knew all the artillery officers in Plevna, and that he certainly was not one of them. Never was an unfortunate raconteur so non-plussed. He threw up the sponge at once, and admitted that his story was a fabrication suggested to him by the fact that he had once made a holiday trip in Turkey. And now the close of the book is reached; but before the last word is written, I should like to express my profound admiration for the soldierly qualities of the rank and file of the Turkish army, with whom I lived on terms of intimate companionship for nearly two years. Courageous in misfortune, uncomplaining under the most awful suffering, good-humoured in every situation, the Turkish troops, both officers and men, showed throughout all the campaign the temper of true heroes. I need hardly say that for me it is deeply painful to think that the men whom I almost idealized, the men with
- 67. whom I fought and suffered, with whom I tasted the glory of victory and the bitterness of defeat, should lie under the accusation of the atrocities which we must believe have been committed in 1896, not only in Armenia, but also in Constantinople. Yet through the black cloud that hangs over the Turkish Empire to-day I can still discern the distant stars; for I can look back with honest pride to the high sense of honour, the dauntless courage, the loyalty and true patriotism of those who were my comrades in arms in the earlier and brighter days.
- 68. INDEX.
- 69. Abdul Kerim Pasha, 49, 99. Achilles, 309, 420. Adil Pasha, 60, 183. Adrianople, 301. Ahmed Pasha, 106. Ahmet, 22, 185, 189, 256, 258; his return to the ranks, 297. Ahmet Bey, 48; captures a Servian, 49. Ak Palanka, 30. Alexandra, 309. Alexinatz, 30, 34. Alix, Colonel, 308. Alouf Pasha, 113. Anisimoff, Captain, 378. Arab regiment, cases of malingering, 145; remedy, 147. Ararat, Mount, 365. Archæological curiosities, 365.
- 70. Archbishop, Catholic Armenian, of Erzeroum, 364. Armenians, sickness of, 364, 374. Artzar village, 103. Ashkaleh, 363. Ashmead-Bartlett, Sir E., 415, 416. Ashmead-Bartlett, Mr. W., 415. Austin, Charles, special correspondent for the Times, 370. Baiburt, 320, 334, 362, 374. Baker Pasha, 50, 308. Baltic, 419. Bash Tabiya redoubt, 237, 255, 265. Basilio, Father, 354. Batavia, 38. Bavaria, 4. Bazaine, 419. Bazias, 9. Beaconsfield, Lord, 372. Belgrade, 9.
- 71. Beresford, Dr., 392. Bergan, General, 308; rifle bullet, 132. Berlin Congress, 372. Besika Bay, 372. Bey, Fano, 301. Bey, Temple, 300. Biliotti, Sir A., English consul at Trebizond, 316, 361, 414. Bingen, 9. Black, Dr., 61; his habits, 62; arrested, 64; sent from Widdin, 65. Black Sea, 11, 14, 315. Blantyre, Lord, 324; his hospital, 326; generosity, 334. Bonn, 3, 9. Bosphorus, 11, 14. Bouchon, Captain, 65. Bourbaki, 85.
- 72. Brestovitz village, 225. Brisbane, 36. Briscoe, 308. Buckle, Dr., 324, 368. Buda-Pesth, 3, 9. Bukova redoubts, 220; village, 115, 127, 137. Bulgareni road, 170. Bulgarians, characteristic, 23; fondness for bright colours, 41; folk-songs, 42. Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, her fund for the relief of the refugees, 415. Busch, Dr., 68; Mdme., 68. Busch, Prof., 3. Butler, Dr., 11. Byron, Lord, extract from The Siege of Corinth, 350. C——, Senhor Garcia, 4. Cambridge, Duke of, 43.
- 73. Camp life, routine of, 263. Canterbury Theatre, 422. Carlo, Monte, 36. Carlos, Don, 85. Casson, Dr., 324, 368. Chefket Pasha, 194; his relief column, 283. Christmas dinner, 52, 342-345; mixing the plum pudding, 343. Circassians, their bravery and rapacity, 94; raid on Roumanian cattle, 95; private forays, 98; looting the dead, 148, 150. Coblenz, 9. Cole, Rev. Mr., 351, 352. Colghassi, or major, 14. Cologne, 9. Commerell, Vice-Admiral Sir Edward, 363. Constantinople, 12, 16, 303, 415; number of Sundays, 17; adventurers, 305.
- 74. Cooktown, 39. Copenhagen, 419. Crajova, 73. Crescent, origin of the, 12. Czetwertinski, Prince, 32, 171, 178, 195, 202, 231, 243, 251, 259; his career, 33-39; death, 39; sent away invalided, 265. Daghistan, 378. Danube, 9, 58. Dardanelles, 14, 419. David, 325. Dead, burial of the, 152, 349. Denniston, Dr. James, 324, 326, 331, 335, 336, 342, 351, 360, 374, 379, 383, 390, 400, 404, 415. Derby, Lord, 340. Devoi Boyun, 384. Dickson, Gen. Sir C., 304, 313. Dolni-Netropol village, 259. Drachenfels, 3, 9.
- 75. Dugald, Lieut., 223. Duhoffskoy, Gen., 395, 397, 400. Duhoffskoy, Princess, 398-400. Eccles, Dr. Simon, 10. Eden, Garden of, legendary site of the, 316, 323. Edhim Effendi, 30. Edim Pasha, 217. Edinburgh, 3. Egyptian troops, compared with the Turkish allies, 66. Ehrenbreitstein, 9. Emin Bey, 109, 206. Eolia-tepe, 368. Epsom salts, method of giving, 76. Erzeroum, 323; condition of the Turkish garrison at, 312, 314; first impression of, 325; population, 326; interior of the gaol, 336; mortality, 348; burial of the dead, 349; horrors of, 359;
- 76. occupied by the Russians, 367; last week in, 396; departure from, 403. Erzinghan, 374; expedition to, 341. Eski-Zagra, 166. Euphrates river, 323. Faizi, 34, 203, 258. Fetherstonhaugh, Charles, 324, 326, 331; attacked by fever, 335. FitzGeorge, Colonel, 43. Fitzgerald, war correspondent of the Standard, 66. Flemington, race meeting at, 38. Foley, 44. Forbes, Archibald, 245. Forbes, Dr., 8. Forbes, Litton, 30, 31. Francis, Mr. J. E., 8. Franco-Prussian war, 419. French, difficulties in talking, 368.
- 77. Frostbite, cases of, 333, 336. Galata, 12, 417. Galicia, 33, 35. Gamboge, 420. Gay, Drew, war correspondent to the Daily Telegraph, 217, 244; succeeds in getting to Sofia, 245-247. Gebhardt, 242. Geneva, 192. Geoffrey, 8. Ghumish Khané, 319, 362. Gill, Dr., 301. Giorgione, Captain, 80, 81. Glasgow, 419. Goar, St., 9. Golden Horn, 17. Gordon, General, 84. Gorny Dübnik, 313. Gourko, General, 106, 166.
- 78. Green Hills, 115, 229. Grivitza redoubt, 185, 220, 221, 225, 228, 235; village, 114, 121, 127, 137, 169; attack on, 171. Gunner, death of a, 124. Gunshot wounds, variety of, 130. Guppy, Dr., 324, 351. Hain-Bogan, 106. Hainkioj, 106. Hakem bashi, 29. Hakki Bey, 351, 375, 385, 396. Hakki Pasha, 262, 300. Hamdi Bey, 217. Harris, his scheme for blowing up a bridge, 306. Harvey, Mr., 285, 315, 316, 326, 331. Hassan Hairi Pasha, 99. Hassan Labri Pasha, 79, 157, 174, 206, 213. Hassan Pasha, 106.
- 79. Hassan, Prince, 66. Hassib Bey, head of the hospital, 63, 89, 101, 125, 136, 157, 159, 198, 294, 417; his interview with Dr. Mackellar, 288. Herbert, Lieut. V., Defence of Plevna, 101 note. Hewitt, Admiral Sir William, 309, 420. Heymann, General, his wish to inhabit the Consulate, 384; death, 387. Hobart, 231. Hornby, Admiral, 309. Hospital, number of cases, 272; horrors of the, 272-279; condition, 273; gangrene, 278, 334. Huon river, 321. Hussein Effendi, 375. Ibrahim Bey, Colonel, 222; redoubt, 222, 226. Ichtiman village, 23, 301. Ilidja village, 363, 405. Irving, Sir Henry, 10.
- 80. Isker river, 111. Ismet, Gulf of, 14, 309. Izzet Effendi, 31. Izzet Pasha, 67, 101. Jack, 62. James, Captain, 43. Janik Bair, 121, 127, 137, 170, 259, 266. Jardin, M., 386, 401. Jarra bashi, 29. Jeune, Sir Francis, 10. Jevislik, 361. Jews, number of, 57. Jules, Mr., 37. Julier Pass, 321. Kabobs, 103. Kaimakan, 119. Kakrinka village, 209.
- 81. Kalafat, 60, 81; bombardment from, 90. Kanli Tabiya, 237. Kars, attack on, 332; march of the wounded prisoners from, 333. Kavanlik redoubt, 242. Keen, Howard, 46. Kemball, Sir Arnold, 316, 323. Kennett, Mr. V. Barrington, 289, 312, 314. Khartoum, 84. Kischeneff, 89. Klapka, General, 33. Komaroff, General, 381. Konak, or townhall, 58. Kop village, 362. Kopdagh Pass, 323, 362, 406; crossing the, 407. Krenke rifle, 132. Krishin redoubt, 220, 225.
- 82. Krivodol, 105, 107. Kronberg, Dr., 68; Mdme., 68. Kronberg, Dr., 242, 265, 269; his hatred of the Bulgarians, 270. Krüdener, General, 106, 166. Kurd Ismael Pasha, 340, 367. Kustler, Dr., 102, 146, 242. Kyrchehir Regiment, 18; ordered to Sofia, 50; to Orkhanieh, 53; to Widdin, 55. Lady patient, the first, 27. Lalor, Sir Peter, 83. Lauri, Victor, 35, 217, 226, 243, 246, 265; his portrait of the Khedive, 217; German sausage, 248. Lazistan, 317; men, 318; dogs, 318. Leader, Nicholas, war correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, 84; his adventurous career, 85; death, 86.
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