Kitchen Sink Realism

Yale School of Architecture
Spring 2020 Advanced Studio
Critics Pier Vittorio Aureli with Emily Abruzzo
Co-editors Serena Ching and Xiaohui Wen

The studio culminated in a book in which urban life is conceived beyond the idea of property. Focusing on the relationship between the home and the settlement, students reimagine what it would mean to experiment with the possibility of commoning. Going beyond the problematic trope of the ‘sharing economy,’ practices of commoning demand direct commitment from the dwellers in taking care of their environment and their peers. Commoning is a practice that emerges out of the effort of a community to pool its resources and share them equitably. The commoners are directly called to take care of the commons—for themselves, for their peers, and for future generations. They can use resources for their well-being, but must make sure those resources will be maintained and replenished, thus establishing a relationship between land and man that is conceptually very different from the modern attitude of property.