Cohabitation as Resistance
Instructors: V. Prof. Thomas Stellmach, A.Prof. PH.D. Andrea Fantin I Year: Feb 2024 I Location: Keyenberg/GermanyI Program: Public CenI Software: AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino6, Photoshop, Illustrator, Lumion, Corona Renderer
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This project addresses the spatial and social transformation of Keyenberg, a village shaped by the long-term pressure of nearby coal mining expansion. As extraction intensified, the village experienced migration, demolition, ecological degradation, and the erosion of collective memory. In response, the project develops a cohabitation strategy based on two existing conditions: the activist networks that emerged through resistance and the forest ecology affected by mining. Rather than treating the site as an empty area for replacement, the proposal works with existing village structure, local typologies, and open land to build new relationships between people, protest, habitation, and non-human life.
Keyenberg’s transformation can be read through interconnected losses: migration, destruction of function, erasure of urban memory, reduction of green space, and fragmentation of the existing fabric. At the same time, new actors entered the village, including environmental activists, civil society groups, and local resistance networks. The project begins by understanding this overlap between decline and collective action.
Demolition in Keyenberg represents more than physical removal. It breaks the continuity between buildings, memory, and everyday life, turning the village into a landscape of interruption. The destruction of structures therefore also means the destruction of social reference points and shared spatial identity.
The project asks how intervention can emerge from conditions specific to Keyenberg rather than from a generic redevelopment model. The answer lies in combining the village’s existing structure with two local realities: activist occupation and the surrounding ecological system. This approach shifts the project from replacement toward site-specific adaptation.
The design framework is organized around three actions. Respect means acknowledging that people and nature are interdependent. Protect focuses on preserving wild and ecologically valuable areas. Repair addresses damaged or weakened spaces within the village fabric. Together, these actions define the spatial ethics of the proposal.
Instead of replacing the village fabric, the project works through typological transformation. Existing building forms are reinterpreted and assigned new roles such as animal shelters, accommodation units, activist bases, market spaces, permaculture areas, and semi-open communal structures. This method preserves local spatial identity while adapting it to new collective and ecological needs.
The axonometric drawings shows the proposal as a distributed system rather than a single intervention. Built elements, semi-open structures, productive landscapes, and forested zones are arranged to support cohabitation at the settlement scale. The project therefore operates through a network of relationships between housing, activism, care, and open space.
The project treats Keyenberg not as a village to be restored to a former state, nor as a territory to be cleared for a new one. Instead, it proposes a cohabitation model that works with conflict, loss, and ecological pressure as real design conditions. By reusing existing typologies, strengthening activist and communal infrastructures, and reconnecting the settlement with non-human habitats, the proposal reframes the village as a shared landscape of care, resistance, and adaptation.
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