Participation in non-market housing as collective city-making: Revisiting Bologna, 1962–77
Trogal, Kim and Wakeford Holder, Anna (2025) Participation in non-market housing as collective city-making: Revisiting Bologna, 1962–77. Arena Journal of Architectural Research, 10 (1). ISSN 2397-0820
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This essay examines architectural histories of Bologna from 1962–77 focusing on inhabitant involvement in collective housing production. ‘Red Bologna’ in this period has been cited as a politically progressive example of participation in urban administration and planning. This dominant architectural narrative is indeed compelling, and has contemporary relevance, due to Bologna’s concerted cityscale attempts to limit economic speculation and provide low-cost dwellings at a time of extreme housing crisis. We offer new perspectives by analysing three sites of participation which, while concurrent, have not previously been addressed together. This essay re-reads these cases, drawing on Anarchist perspectives – a tradition present in Italy but often overlooked in favour of official Marxist or autonomous Marxist currents of the day – to explore questions of sociality, social hierarchy and property. It therefore contributes to contemporary debates around the democratisation of housing and the possibilities offered for self-organisation and wider urban engagement.
This article is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. This permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, including for commercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited. Images and other third-party material are subject to their own licence terms as indicated in the article.
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