3 October 2009–3 October 2011 / Casco HQ
User’s Manual: The Grand Domestic Revolution (GDR) is Casco’s long term “living research” project developed in partnership with Utrecht Manifest: Biennial for Social Design. The project explores the potential of the domestic sphere as a locus for creating “the commons,” a self-organized form of sharing both material and immaterial resources, by means of artistic, organizational and spatial design operations.
The project takes its title from a book by architectural historian Dolores Hayden on the late 19th century material feminist design movement in the United States that communalized the spaces of isolated domestic work by building public kitchens, communal apartments, cooperative childcare facilities, organizing their own working and living cooperatives and were involved with town planning. GDR recalls this multifaceted social movement, and by means of action research, artistic investigation, theory and design/architectural practice, searches for other forms of living that subvert capitalist organizations of society. What began as a year-long project in October 2009 continues, and culminates in an exhibition and publication set for November 2011 to share the research outcomes and potentially act as a catalyst for further projects. An apartment rented as the headquarters of the project continues to be available for residency and visit.
