Uncommon River

• Published in: Landscape Architecture Frontiers 2017-06, Vol.5 (3), p.132
• Main Authors: Bedir, Merve, Georgiev, Ljubo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2095-5405
• DOI: 10.15302/J-LAF-20170313

This paper will present and discuss the notion of commoning and common(s) in terms of public space, landscape, infrastructure, and economics, focusing on Maritsa River Commoning as questioning the assumed nature of the river as a border: a border between nature and culture, north and south, "European" and "non-European," private and public... Commoning as discussing economy as the everyday actions of connecting, sharing, making, opening, relating and producing together. Commoning as exploring new co-existences and not as creating a substitute to the existing.Ideas, seeds, water, air, cultures and spaces, which we collectively produce each and every day, all of those are commons. They are the results of collective efforts, research, thought and creation across time and regions. During one Architecture Week 2015, we explored the networks in Plovdiv and creating new ones locally, and across countries, through spaces of collective action along and across the river, on and under the water. We read, listened, debated, imagined, sunbathed, rowed, learned, produced, and re-produced.KEY WORDSCommoning; Common(s); Border; Maritsa River