Christine Darragh + Siamak Saadati

Occupations of Uninhabited Space is a project which explores the planet of Anarres, as described in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Its interests lie in the power structures implicit on this planet, despite an ideological rejection of centralized power.  These influences give rise to a conflict between an individual’s right of choice and the common interests of the society.  Through the lens of domesticity, we imagined a built environment of arched structures, designed for shelter with an economy of means. Assembled from adobe using manual labor, these are built in a context without wood or structural steel. The inhabitants first populated this planet as an ideological social experiment designed to provide its citizens free choice while also rejecting private property and centralized power. For a planet without ownership, we envisioned sleeping spaces whose functional deployability begins to reassert individual expression while maintaining strong ties to the commons.