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In addressing issues about autonomy and ownership my role as an architect ceases to be the designer of a final product and instead I become a designer of tools with which to adress these issues. Western Cape Anti Eviction Campaign is a political grassroots organisation working for and with the people living in the illegal settlements around the city. One of their main issues is that of access to information, the shack dwellers don’t know their rights or what they can do to make their situation better. The information networks of Cape Town does not work for the poor people since they are owned and controlled by the structures that have created the economical inequality in the first place. If the shack dwellers own and wear their own means of connecting to the information networks the hegemonical internet is dehierarchised and instead an autonomous digital infrastructure is created.
Out of Cape Town’s original Fynbos vegetation only 15% remains and only 1% is protected, but out of the city’s 400.000 shack dwellers 0% are protected from eviction by Cape Towns militarised police force. If the illegal settlements would be integrated in the protected biotopes the same laws that protects the Fynbos would protect the shack dwellers. Cape Towns citizens would have a new botanical garden and gain a positive perception of the shack dweller instead of the reluctant attitude they currently express. In addressing issues about autonomy and ownership my role as an architect ceases to be the designer of a final product and instead I become a designer of tools with which to adress these issues. When designing temporary architecture we need to temporalise not only the designs but also the architectural profession in itself, just as when dealing with issues that doesn’t affect us we should not try to come with answers, but assist the affected in formulating their own answer.
