Evicting the Ghost. Architectures of Survival

studioBASAR

Cover
Softcover, dust jacket

Edition
2010, 14.8 x 21 cm, 240 pp., 51 ill., Romanian/English

Collection
Architecture Book Series

ISBN 978-973-0-09406-0

Book concept
studioBASAR (Alex Axinte & Cristi Borcan)

Editor
Alina Șerban

Authors
studioBASAR, Ole Bouman, Cătălin Berescu, Liviu Chelcea, Yona Friedman, Ștefan Ghenciulescu, Iulia Modiga, Damiana Oțoiu, Doina Petrescu, Lavinia Stan, Kai Vockler, Filippo M. Zerilli & Marie-Benedicte Dembour, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss 

Design
Cătălin Rulea

Out of the equation of nationalisation-retrocession process of the housing proprieties in Romania, an extra house is born: a ghost house which pops out of the blue over the streets, camping over the sidewalks, hanging by the facades of the real houses, and after a while vanishing without trace. The ghost house has no walls, doors, windows or roof: it is just furniture, rugs, plants and dishes, all tucked together in consecutive piles, wrapped in cardboards and blue folia, and painted with protest messages. Built up outside, the ghost house is made up of everything that a family gathers around during its indoor lifetime; it is an inside-out house. With creative and learning based engagement, Evicting the Ghost. Architectures of Survival examines a specific phenomenon of recent Romanian social history: nationalisation, retrocession, eviction. The study carried out by the studioBASAR architectural group (Alex Axinte & Cristi Borcan) presents the multifaceted reality of forced evictions and includes information about the legislative history of these evictions, the uncertain status of private property owners in Romania over the last one and a half centuries, the stages of eviction, the stories of a number of families subjected to these measures and a typology of the dwelling places developed by those evicted, expressions of nowadays urban survival.

Publication supported by: AFCN, Rațiu Family Foundation, Embassy of Netherlands

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