ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the role of architecture and design in supporting commoning practices depends on parameters such as scales, trans-local knowledge, levels of precariousness, and uneven spatial conditions. It claims that the concept of the commons is vital in discussing design pedagogies and epistemologies in the context of architecture from public to commons. As the term was primarily introduced in the 1970s as a discussion on managing natural resources after the influencing impacts of the occupy movements from New York to Istanbul and Hong Kong, the term became common concerning spatial design and bottom-up anti-capitalist community involvements. For urbanist Stavros Stavrides, urban commons happen in the sites of struggles and movements for rights. Meanwhile, collective action, heterogeneous labor conditions, and ethics of locality are often described by the economist feminist geographer J.K. Gibson-Graham, who widens the practice and discussion on commoning practices as collective actions. The chapter focuses on the spatial discourse of commoning, designing the scale of commons and architecture, precarious conditions, and indigenous worlding in building threshold infrastructures. It will attempt to answer how can we build commoning practices that reveal urban struggles without labor exploitation?
