Protest Architecture

Alteration

Just as landmark pieces of architecture can become a focus for protest, other parts of the built environment may also have a symbolic relevance to those pushing for societal change. Statues, sculpture and other historic artefacts, whilst not pieces of architecture in themselves, can form important constituent parts of a building or its wider setting. The elements with greater cultural significance may also attract the greater attention of protesters. If Reappropriation and Occupation are methods of interacting with the built environment, Alteration is the attempt to change its fundamental form or materiality.

Barricades

The barricade is one of the most evocative forms of protest structure, rich in history and charged with the spirit of insurrection. Its function is as a blockade, placed across a road or path to prevent access through it.

It is the speed of the construction and constituent components that distinguish the barricade from more permanent forms of barrier, such as a wall or embankment. Where a wall may be constructed in good time from homogenous materials such as brick or stone, a barricade is more likely to be assembled hastily from found materials: overturned cars, street furniture, timber, rubble and general detritus.

Beacons

Protest Beacons, although a form of Tower are of sufficient complexity to warrant a discussion all
by themselves. They are created using
tensegrity principles, based on Kenneth Snelson’s Needle Tower.

Designed first in the UK developed by members of Extinction Rebellion (XR), their name derives from signaling beacons, forms of structure built in a visible location, such as a hilltop, in order to attract attention or to alert to an incoming threat. Protest Beacons continue that tradition in conveying a message of imminent danger, and are now used in protests worldwide.

Exhibitions

Many examples of protest architecture have been designed to push the boundaries of what is considered lawful. But there have been protests within the conventional practice of architecture, which were designed to be confrontational
in different ways.

Pavilions and exhibitions have produced playful, provocative and arresting pieces of protest architecture with a much lower, albeit still
possible, risk of police intervention.

Exhibitions also allow the general public to engage with the subject material and structures used in protest, which can in turn inspire future actions.

Festivals

The occupation of space for festivals can be colourful and provocative, re-purposing the built environments, albeit temporarily. Taking over a space for partying can be an act of protest, especially when it is carried out by an underrepresented group.

What sets it apart from other forms of Occupation is its propensity to use celebration, music and other forms of creative expression in its delivery.

Protest groups such as Extinction Rebellion, with their festival like rebellions, have built upon events like Pride and Carnival by adding new protests structures to block traffic and create infrastructure.

Occupation

Buildings and urban landscapes have inherent associations with people coming together. It is a human instinct to assemble in number, whether in times of peace – for trade and commerce, leisure, culture and civic duties – or in times of difficulty – for protection, information, discussion, conflict and resolution.

Civic buildings and the open spaces they inhabit are a natural focus for such gatherings. The are (often intentionally) emblematic of the society that created them. To gather in protest outside buildings of civic importance is therefore to challenge or address the power vested in the representatives that occupy them.

Reappropriation

Just as building retrofit provides a cost-carbon effective way of providing additional accommodation or improved thermal performance, the reappropriation of buildings as a platform for protest can be equally effective.

For many iconic buildings, the simplest form of reappropriation may be to use them as a backdrop, perhaps for a banner or a protester suspended at height. The juxtaposition creates an immediate narrative, framing the layered composition of architecture and occupier. In such a
way, the symbolism inherent in a landmark building or monument can be subverted.

Student proposals

The architectural education system presents prospective students with perhaps one of the most radical opportunities of expression that they may encounter within their career.

Liberated – however temporarily – from the immediacy of earning an income, students may devote a far greater proportion of their creativity towards abstract thought and expression.

Protest architecture talks through a number of different examples of student work that directly relates to protest.

Towers

The tower is an iconic form with many precedents in form and symbolism. Towers are often associated with strength and isolation, and have been created throughout history for defence, observation, communication and storage. Their height evidences the power of those with the resources to construct them, and their proportions elevate the imagination of those who look up at them.

A traditional tower is tall and narrow in proportion, with a single room and/or staircase making up the plan, leading to an enclosed room or platform at the top. Although seldom used defensively in contemporary architecture, the use of towers for protest provides perhaps one of the strongest conceptual links with their historic precedents.

Treehouses

Humans have a strange relationship with trees. On the one hand, trees are loved, revered and treasured, providing humanity with food, clean air and temperate environments. But humans are also violent toward trees, destroying them to create fuel or building materials, or because they happen to be in the way.

Much of the built environment is made using, heated with or built upon the site of trees, and so architects are often part of the group of humans implicated directly or indirectly with their destruction. But there are also designers who use their skills in defence of trees, and many examples are featured in the book.

Tripods

Tripods are one of the simplest and most powerful demonstration of protest architecture’s ability to hold space with limited resources. They require only
three poles connected atone end, such that, when
erected, a protester can sit atop them above head
level. Protesters on tripods cannot be easily removed by a police officer without causing a risk of injury to either party.

Tripods are often made from round poles such as timber or bamboo lashed with rope, or metal scaffolding with proprietary connectors. In the former, rope acts as a natural fulcrum, locking the poles into place as they are spread, and preventing them spreading apart

Tunnels

Tunnels are an inventive and subversive
form of protest architecture that have
created complex underground structures
with little more than a spade, a pickaxe
and a good measure of bravery.

Instead of creating visible Barricades above ground to hold space, tunnelling uses negative space to protect the landscape above it. Protesters entrenched in underground labyrinths have
prevented heavy machinery from operating above, as the tunnels created may be vulnerable to collapse. For that same reason, tunnelling can be a dangerous and complicated way of creating
an occupied space.