Our faculty exhibition series returns this fall in a new virtual format. The intent of the exhibition program is not only to highlight the professional work or academic research of our faculty, but also to offer insights into connections between their pedagogy and practice.

The fall 2020 semester will include online galleries from:

• Sascha Delz, Monday, Aug. 17 – Saturday, Aug. 29
• Ginger Nolan, Monday, Sept. 14 – Saturday, Sept. 26
• Olivier Touraine, Monday, Sept. 28 – Saturday, Oct. 10
• Takako Tajima, Monday, Oct. 26 – Saturday, Nov. 7

Assistant professor Sascha Delz kicks off the fall semester program with Housing the Co‑Op – A Micro‑Political Manifesto. The exhibition features excerpts from a publication co-edited by Delz, Rainer Hehl and Patricia Ventura that illustrates how cooperative practices can provide affordable shelter for a growing global population. The manifesto and accompanying essays—including case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas—show that a mix of micro-political actions and models of co-ownership, co-production and co-management can spark systemic change for a more sustainable and equitable future. Below, he shares additional insight about his work.

What inspired this exhibition?

The main inspiration for this exhibition is the limited equity co-operative model. Looking for alternative and viable approaches to address the chronic housing crises around the globe, my colleagues and I collaborated on a research project that explored how the co-operative model can be used for more inclusive, affordable, and adequate housing production. The manifesto displayed in this exhibition is an excerpt of the research’s resulting publication. As democratically run and collectively owned nonprofit enterprises, limited equity housing co-operatives offer a fascinating pool of diversity, innovation, and solidarity. Beyond the duality of state and market, co-operatives are propelled by their members’ everyday needs and bottom-up initiatives to secure housing as a right rather than as a commodity. So, from my perspective, the displayed manifesto is not only an effort to put a spotlight on the potentials of the co-operative model, but is also a plea to start rethinking some fundamental components of current housing markets and policies.

More generally, what inspires your work?

As obvious as it might sound from the perspective of an architect, my work is profoundly inspired by the power of design. In its broadest sense, I see design as an integrative process of investigation and transformation that ideally allows us to improve our living and built environments. Housing co-operatives are a great example for this transformative and investigate ability: While the underlying organizational model is a social and economic construct, it is the application of a design process that not only literally gives shape and visibility to a specific idea or need, but also–through its iterative and projective nature–can critically shape and transform the initial idea in return.

What do you hope viewers take away from this exhibition?

The chronic housing crisis that we see in the United States and all around the globe is, in my opinion, unacceptable. In our current world that plays off excess against scarcity, the question of how to solve this issue is not a question of lacking resources, but a question of an uneven distribution of resources. If we really and sincerely want to tackle the housing crisis, we cannot hesitate to question some of the essential and main features inherent in most housing sectors. I think the most prominent–and surely the most uncomfortable­–aspect that has to be challenged in this regard is the question of ownership, particularly land ownership. So, if I can hope that viewers take away one thing from this exhibition, it would be the fact that there are concrete and viable alternatives, such as the co-operative model, on the table. We only have to be bold and persistent enough to pursue them.

To view the gallery, visit https://exhibitions.uscarch.com/housing-the-co-op-a-micro-political-manifesto/.

 Related Links: Past Faculty/Student Exhibitions