Olalekan Jey­i­fous calls his part­ly dystopi­an-look­ing col­lages, which deal with urban trans­for­ma­tion process­es, visu­al con­ver­sa­tions. By exag­ger­at­ing exist­ing sit­u­a­tions, he aims to increase the vis­i­bil­i­ty of those peo­ple and set­tle­ments who often go unheard in plan­ning and fall vic­tim to urban devel­op­ment. He sheds light on the inter­twin­ing of hege­mon­ic struc­tures, shows how archi­tec­ture per­pet­u­ates the pow­er struc­tures of colo­nial­ist ide­olo­gies and then itself becomes ammu­ni­tion in the arse­nal of colo­nial pow­er. These dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives and nar­ra­tive strands are also reflect­ed in this col­lage of the Euro­pean city. After the sys­tem­at­ic exploita­tion of its colonies, it stands here as a col­o­nized enti­ty itself that not only tells of these sys­tems but also of green­er futures and stories.

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The small town of Kiruna in Swe­den, with a pop­u­la­tion of almost 18,000, is to be moved. The rea­son for this is a mag­netite ore mine. The city could col­lapse if the earth is hol­lowed out. Plans have been devel­oped to part­ly demol­ish and part­ly rebuild the hous­es at a loca­tion about three kilo­me­ters away. This unusu­al move should be com­plet­ed by 2033. Many, includ­ing the city admin­is­tra­tion, see a town devel­oped on the draw­ing board as a poten­tial new begin­ning. How­ev­er, not every­one seems hap­py about the plans, which are close­ly linked to the company’s eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. What would hap­pen, for exam­ple, if the glob­al mar­ket price for mag­netite ore fell and the relo­ca­tion of Kiruna, which has already begun, could not be ful­ly implemented?

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In 2009, the munic­i­pal­i­ty of Tilburg, togeth­er with two large real estate and con­struc­tion groups, acquired a mas­sive plot direct­ly behind the main rail­way sta­tion. The orig­i­nal plan was to demol­ish exist­ing build­ings, such as the for­mer loco­mo­tive hall, or LocHal for short, and to con­struct huge office and apart­ment com­plex­es. How­ev­er, the deci­sion was reversed. Instead of demo­li­tion, rede­vel­op­ment and con­ver­sions took root. And so, in 2019, the munic­i­pal library—which is much more than just a col­lec­tion of books—opened here. Its glass hall pro­tects an inner-city square with a café and open stair­case. There are also archives, offices, as well as event rooms and, on the perime­ters, work­shop areas and small meet­ing rooms. The many peo­ple who use the build­ing for a wide range of activ­i­ties make it clear that pub­lic space will con­tin­ue to play an essen­tial role in the future.

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South of Lis­bon, in the hin­ter­land of hotels and apart­ment com­plex­es, is the not yet legal­ized Ter­ras da Cos­ta quar­ter. In 2012, the idea of set­ting up a com­mu­nal kitchen was born in the neigh­bor­hood. Their pro­pos­al was tied to hopes that author­i­ties would agree to install a water sup­ply and there­by start the legal­iza­tion process of the set­tle­ment. The archi­tec­tur­al office ate­lier­mob and many oth­er groups, ini­tia­tives, and indi­vid­u­als sup­port­ed this ambi­tion in var­i­ous ways. Some con­tributed their work direct­ly, oth­ers posi­tioned them­selves in sol­i­dar­i­ty, and foun­da­tions fund­ed the project. After about two years, water final­ly flowed to Ter­ras da Cos­ta. But many oth­er aspects remained unre­solved or have not been decid­ed polit­i­cal­ly, so that set­tle­ments in sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions have to con­tin­ue the fight for their rights to the city.

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Due to out-migra­tion, the city of Gör­litz has shrunk by a quar­ter of its pop­u­la­tion since the 1990s. In 2008, a research group of the TU Dres­den and the Gör­litz city admin­is­tra­tion dared an exper­i­ment to attract new peo­ple to the city. Tem­po­rary liv­ing in Gör­litz should reveal the qual­i­ties and poten­tial of this place. Probe­wohnen, Stadt Erleben, and Stadt auf Probe, and now the fourth edi­tion of the project is under­way. Those inter­est­ed can try out liv­ing in the city and get to know the net­works in the cul­tur­al and youth sec­tors. They can use shared work­spaces as well as work­shops and thus direct­ly explore new social and pro­fes­sion­al perspectives.

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All over the world, large hous­ing estates like Cité du Parc rise upwards out of spa­cious park land­scapes. They are often con­sid­ered »social hotspots.« As is the case here. In the ear­ly 2000s, the French state decid­ed to rethink the future of such hous­ing estates. This is where the archi­tec­ture firm Laca­ton & Vas­sal with Druot comes in. The team had been work­ing on this ques­tion for some time: How can spa­tial trans­for­ma­tions be planned and imple­ment­ed so that they do not lead to occu­pant dis­place­ment? The office’s work illus­trates that alter­na­tives to demo­li­tion and new con­struc­tion do exist. And they define new qual­i­ties in build­ings, which many believe can­not be improved.

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