First Advisor

Sergio Palleroni

Date of Award

5-25-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Architecture and University Honors

Department

Architecture

Subjects

Abandoned buildings, Squatter settlements, Toilets -- Design and construction, Showers (Plumbing fixtures) -- Design and construction, Windows -- Security measures

DOI

10.15760/honors.617

Abstract

As housing stocks across the country becomes increasingly unstable in the face of imminent ecological collapse, economic austerity measures, and speculative investment, squatting becomes an increasingly appropriate response to the precarity of life in Contemporary America. In contrast to the present neoliberal solutions to the housing crisis, squatting is able to operate outside the logic of the market and effect change on its own terms, by its own will. The excessive demands of the parasitic land owning class cannot be compared to the needs for basic survival and humanity of the rest. Many are tired of the Sisyphean task of negotiating with ineffectual bureaucrats and systems that default to oppression, all while homes and buildings lie empty all over the city. An answer, for some, lies directly in the streets; where direct action gets the goods.

Squatting isn’t for everyone, and does come with its own array of challenges: difficult living conditions, instability, reliance on communal relations, and the ever present threat of violence and repression from public and private security forces always looming overhead. This architectural thesis responds to those challenges in the form of an instructional zine detailing the design and construction of six objects to aid in the rapid renovation and defense of a squatted building. Addressing common issues of privacy, security, public engagement, and sanitation, the zine uses step-by-step instructions to communicate the construction of six helpful objects, designed to maximize materials that can be affordably purchased, easily salvaged, simply stolen, or otherwise obtained.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25462

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