The Wek­er­le estate in the south­east of Budapest has been part of the world­wide Tran­si­tion Town Net­work for sev­er­al years, which address­es the glob­al chal­lenges of the cli­mate emer­gency and devel­ops prac­tices for local pro­duc­tion as well as re-use. Alter­na­tive ener­gy con­cepts are devel­oped, food sov­er­eign­ty is cre­at­ed, sus­tain­able con­struc­tion and emis­sion-free mobil­i­ty are pro­mot­ed. In Wek­er­le, par­tic­u­lar empha­sis is placed on com­mu­ni­ty-sup­port­ed agri­cul­ture, organ­ic hor­ti­cul­ture is pro­mot­ed through cours­es, seeds of local veg­etable vari­eties are trad­ed on exchange plat­forms, and com­post is sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly col­lect­ed. The local gov­ern­ment has rec­og­nized this approach’s poten­tial and sup­ports it—despite some resistance—with mate­r­i­al and finan­cial resources. And so, a com­mu­ni­ty house has been built, a com­mu­ni­ty gar­den laid out, and the mar­ket place redesigned.

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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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For about five years, an archive has exist­ed in Ams­ter­dam, reveal­ing that which is buried and rarely told. It makes vis­i­ble (again) erad­i­cat­ed and sup­pressed voic­es, his­to­ries, and sto­ries. Build­ing on the lega­cy of the Suri­nam-born and lat­er Ams­ter­dam-based social sci­en­tist Wal­do Heil­bron, a cen­ter for (post)colonial his­to­ry was estab­lished. From this base, hege­mon­ic and Euro-cen­tric his­to­ri­og­ra­phy is expand­ed upon with oth­er aspects, data, and facts that paint a more dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed and mul­ti-per­spec­ti­val image of glob­al devel­op­ments over the last 400 years. As a place for col­lect­ing, research­ing, medi­at­ing, and pro­duc­ing knowl­edge, The Black Archives demon­strates how his­to­ry can be ori­ent­ed dif­fer­ent­ly and, step by step, sup­ple­ment­ed and expand­ed with exact­ly those miss­ing and sup­pressed voices.

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The book and action research project Fund­ing the Coop­er­a­tive City. Com­mu­ni­ty Finance and the Econ­o­my of Civic Spaces describes numer­ous case stud­ies from across Europe, which tell of how local com­mu­ni­ty finance can be set up. A wide vari­ety of groups that have devel­oped new mod­els for devel­op­ing and oper­at­ing non-com­mer­cial spaces for their neigh­bor­hoods are pre­sent­ed and dis­cussed. None of this is easy, as many inter­views and dis­cus­sion notes reveal. But it is pos­si­ble: through the for­ma­tion of sol­i­dar­i­ty net­works, neigh­bor­ly com­mit­ment, a will­ing­ness to exper­i­ment, and admin­is­tra­tive and often finan­cial sup­port from the respec­tive communities.

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In the 1980s, Tox­teth is the set­ting for vio­lent class strug­gles. Peo­ple move to oth­er parts of Liv­er­pool; many of the Vic­to­ri­an row hous­es fall into dis­re­pair. As a result, a group becomes active in the neigh­bor­hood. They clean up, plant flower beds, paint win­dows, and estab­lish a mar­ket. A Com­mu­ni­ty Land Trust is set up. The aim: to cre­ate afford­able hous­ing that is owned by the peo­ple from the neigh­bor­hood. The group con­vinces the munic­i­pal­i­ty not to demol­ish the hous­es. Lat­er, the archi­tec­ture col­lec­tive Assem­ble comes on board and devel­ops a plan for the area. Although the work is still unfin­ished and many hous­es are still in need of fur­ther atten­tion, the people’s goal of tak­ing the future of their area into their own hands has been achieved for the time being.

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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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