Evolving Autonomy Through Repair: Trial-and-Error Spatial Practices in a Japanese Squatted Space

Abstract

Squats are increasingly studied as spaces of autonomy and horizontality, yet scholarship rarely examines how these qualities are maintained through the space’s daily repair processes. Based on participant observation, this study identifies internal autonomy in a squat by focusing on the opening and closing of spatial formation in the squat of Takayama Architecture Seminar School (TASS) in Japan. Through a trial-and-error process of transforming the space in response to the needs of the participants, activists continually tried to determine how to ensure psychological security and create nonhierarchical relationships in their squat. By theorizing opening/closing as an iterative practice of positioning, removing, and dispersing objects, the study shows that squatters’ autonomy is not fixed at the moment of spatial design but is continually produced through everyday acts of repair. This insight shows that repair in squats provides a space for participants to care for themselves, others, and the community.