City Talks: Shelter for Everyone

Ash Holwell
A tale of radical space sharing from squatting to two/fiftyseven


Breaking into a house and calling the police on yourselves isn't everyone's jumping off point to becoming an architect, of sorts.
Weaving a tale from a freezing squat in the south of Rotterdam, through community spaces in Whangārei to their latest project in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Ash sees the sharing of spaces as a critical component of a socially just and sustainable future.
Through their design practice, spacelamp, they have been running a small series of experiments in social infrastructures of sharing, community place creation, and sustainable design over the last fifteen years.
In the absence of a town hall, library, and soon city gallery, their latest work, two/fiftyseven, is beginning to play an intriguing role for Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Three years in, the climate-positive shared space has hosted over 500 organisations, 1,000 events and given away over $230,000 of space to those who otherwise could not access it.

What happens to a city when we learn how to share?

Ash [they/them] is a design activist dedicated to radically changing our relationship to space and place through their practice, spacelamp.
Through a meandering and rigorous series of experiments, including squatting, professional dumpster diving, graduating from clown school, commandeering a church, running for mayor, and managing a commercial property portfolio, they have developed a practice of creating transformational community spaces.
They're cultivate environments that nurture cultures of sharing, empowering groups and individuals to safely develop the bold practices needed to create a just and sustainable world - creating safe places to do dangerous things.