Introduction: Commoning as Differentiated Publicness

Authors

  • Heidi Sohn Delft University of Technology
  • Stavros Kousoulas Delft University of Technology
  • Gerhard Bruyns

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7480/footprint.9.1.895

Abstract

Contemporary commoning practices do not constitute a mere alternative, but instead comprise a qualitative threshold: a moment of critical differentiation. As such, they call out for the development of a set of renewed methodological, analytical and synthetic tools and devices that are better equipped to understand the in-between as a ‘thirding’: as a form of differentiated publicness. The editorial introduction offers a platform of negotiation, which far from disregarding the already established approaches to the thematic in question, aims at expanding their scope, complementing them with non-dialectical readings. By presenting non-hierarchical understandings of urban practices, as well as fostering the intersection of different trajectories and discourses, the introduction to this issue strives to provide a fertile ground for the encounter of the multidimensional and relational potentials of contemporary commoning practices. 

Author Biographies

Heidi Sohn, Delft University of Technology

Dr. ir. Heidi Sohn is Assistant Professor of Architecture Theory at the Faculty of Architecture of the TU-Delft. She received her doctoral title from the Faculty of Architecture, TU-Delft in 2006. Since 2007 she has been academic coordinator of the Architecture Theory Section of the Architecture Department. Since 2011 she is visiting professor of architecture theory at UMA School of Architecture in Umeå, Sweden. Her main areas of investigation include genealogical enquiries of the postmodern theoretical landscape from the 1980s to the present, as well as diverse geopolitical and politico-economic expressions typical of late capitalist urbanisation. She lives in Amsterdam.

Stavros Kousoulas, Delft University of Technology

Ir. Stavros Kousoulas studied Architecture at the National University of Athens where he received his first Master diploma in 2009. He received his second MSc in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of the TU-Delft in 2012. Since 2012 he has been involved in several academic activities at the Theory Section of the Faculty of Architecture of the TU-Delft. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of the TU-Delft where he is developing his doctoral dissertation focusing primarily on morphogenetic processes framed within assemblage theory. He lives in Delft.

Gerhard Bruyns

Dr. ir. Gerhard Bruyns is Assistant Professor of Environment and Interior Design, School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. In 2014 he held the position of Competition Registrar for the World Congress of Architecture UIA 2014. Presently he is Executive Team member of IFOU, and Scientific Board Member of the African Centre for Studies in Leiden, the Netherlands. He has published and edited books on urbanism, African urbanisation and urban development of the Netherlands. His research interests focus on formal and informal urbanisation in Asia. He lives in Hong Kong.

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Published

2015-06-11

Issue

Issue # 16 | Spring 2015 | Commoning as Differentiated Publicness

Section

Editorial

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