In c\a\n\a\d\a most public and privately funded housing is mono-functional and isolating. In the dense urban cores of large cities, single-use developments create alienation. To create housing that connects residents to each other and to the city around them, we demand mutual aid housing in the urban core that encourages solidarity, anti-hierarchy, direct distribution of resources and reciprocal exchange. Mutual aid housing is a space designed to facilitate cooperative support among people of diverse backgrounds and experiences, from refugees to local residents.
Montréal
Table de concertation du Faubourg Saint-Laurent with Maison du développement durable, Maison du Savoir et de la Littérature, Comité logement Ville-Marie, and Interloge
Atelier Big City
Ipek Türeli, McGill University
c\a\n\a\d\a’s rapidly growing population requires a large amount of new high-density urban housing. However, in our hyper-commodified housing system most urban housing diminishes the capacity for supportive and empowering relationships between residents, both within a building and to a larger community beyond. Well serviced and socially connected sites are built as ‘luxury’ rentals or condominiums while social housing is often constructed in marginal locations with poor access to transit, jobs, social services, and cultural amenities. Both are typically devoid of meaningful internal communal programs and functions. This leaves residents isolated and unsupported, resulting in disconnection, dysfunction, and heightened unaffordability. This is especially pronounced for refugees and many newcomers to c\a\n\a\d\a.
We demand that all levels of government come together to build mutual aid housing and stop this alienation by enhancing resident capacity to collaboratively exchange resources and services to overcome social and economic challenges. Mutual aid housing facilitates solidarity, anti-hierarchy, direct distribution of resources and reciprocal exchange. This means the design should include nested spatial scales that supports access, resident interaction, individual agency, and group collaboration. Those scales are part of a design that considers connections at the threshold of individual housing units, in the cross-programming of building circulation, and between the building and the community context. This housing must be located on sites that provide access to transit, jobs, and social services and directly incorporate contextual communal programs within the building. Sites and buildings must be big enough to cultivate community and include expanded and supportive programming responsive to community needs. Density and supportive programming respond to existing needs, foster community-building, and provide culturally appropriate support to in need.
To demonstrate the potential of mutual aid housing and as a first step in realizing this national demand, we demand that the city of Montreal and the Province of Quebec fund the construction of a mutual aid building on the government-owned site at the northeastern corner of Rue Berri and Boulevard de Maisonneuve in downtown Montreal. Our proposal for this site combines diverse unit types, from studios to three bedrooms and maisonettes, with a public school and a carefully selected array of programming led by the local organization, la Maison du savoir et de la littérature. These programs include a community health centre, grocery store, food bank, and a community led recycling/re-use centre, alongside formal and informal spaces for community functions. Programming will emphasize aid for refugees and recent newcomers, such as medical services for asylum seekers in the community health clinic. It is only by combining the creation of community-driven housing with supportive programs for social cohabitation that we will be able to end housing alienation.
Randy Cohen | ||||
Anne Cormier | ||||
Howard Davies | ||||
Gabriel Tessier | ||||
Fannie Yockell | ||||
Éric Michaud | ||||
Samuel Vanzin | ||||
Kevin McMahon | ||||
Isabelle Richard | ||||
Pierre Samson | ||||
Ipek Türeli | ||||
Marc-André Fortin |
We are Architects Against Housing Alienation and we believe the current housing system in c\a\n\a\d\a must be abolished!