22nd-Century Guide to Commoning A By the members of Canary Island Commons September 1, 2131 Books made with plant-based paper and hand-copied with plant-based ink by the students of Leila Ahmed’s school Cover and additional art by Kabir Masud, Age 8 These are the wealthiest development companies. Desert e, the members of Canary Island Com- 2. MAKE AND CHANGE THE RULES TOGETHER: A Part 1: Building Your Commons community needs rules so that no one person overuses Islands builds luxury house-boat communities and London mons, are a group of climate refugees Eden turns green spaces into vegetable gardens, but then who have made a home for ourselves in shared resources, but the rules will only be fair and en- A. Choosing a Site forceable if they respond to the realities of your com- Sabina Masud, Camila Peszke, and Georges Diori encloses them in rings of climate-controlled luxury flats so Wthe abandoned Canary Wharf shopping complex. Some of that you can only access the garden if you can afford to live munity, which means each member should have a say in us have always lived in London, and lost our previous homes in one of their enclaves. to Storms Irma or Richard. Some of us lost homes to making them and a chance to alter them as needed. This hoosing a location is the first, and most important, flooding, war, and heat waves farther away and had fled in is also why, once a month, we ask that a representative step in creating a commons, since it is here that of each new Commons join with a representative of ours you will live as long as the whims of weather and THREE: Is there green space? You will need space to grow makeshift boats to the Armless Armada, drifting on the food. It is best if that space contains soil that is already North Sea before storm surges or desperation pushed us to negotiate the use of shared foraging spots. Cthe wealthy permit. home to grass and flowers. This means your soil is more past border patrol and up the Thames. All of us are united 3. OBSERVE THE USE OF COMMON SPACES: Take The three of us have spent the past month surveying the likely to be healthy and fertile; also, you can live off of edible in the work of maintaining a community that shares the turns observing common spaces to make sure everyone is plants like dandelions or nettles while you wait for your surprising bounty of this partially-flooded city. riverside for potential locations, some of which we will review using them according to the rules. here. But we first wanted to share the four questions we seeds to grow. Ideally your site will have trees as well. Planting between trees keeps the soil fertile, helps pro- 4. ENFORCE THE RULES: Rules that aren’t regularly asked ourselves when considering a site, so that you can un- We live like our ancestors might have lived, before enclosure tect sensitive plants during winter’s heavy rains and winds enforced won’t mean anything, but penalties should start derstand our reasoning and use it to find sites of your own. and colonialism forced them into labouring for the profit of and summer’s long sunny stretches, and keeps the ground light, and conflict resolution procedures should be easy others. We forage no more than we need from the sur- beneath you from eroding during heavy downpours. Besides, for anyone to access. For example, if someone takes too ONE: Is it really above the flood line? The waters have rounding environment—public parks, railways overgrown with your plants aren’t the only living things that will need pro- much their first time foraging, we usually just require receded a bit since the Sunny Flood of 2128, but they rise edible plants, and a foreshore rich in flood debris— in order tection during the hot, dry days of summer. Trees shade them to make something for the whole community with again with every winter storm or downpour. When you walk to sustain our common life. We do not take as much as we humans too. can carry to produce goods to sell to others, and so we live the excess. We reserve time at the end of each of our the shore, look for piles of debris pushed up by storm surges weekly decision making assemblies for anyone with a and settle above them. against the logic that caused the earth to warm and the FOUR: How liveable are the buildings? If you choose an open conflict or problem to step forward, and neither party is water to rise and stole from us our first homes. We live like site, make sure there is space both to construct shelter allowed to leave the assembly until the conflict is resolved. TWO: Is it really abandoned? Observe any site multiple this from necessity, of course, but it is necessity with the and to grow food. If you are moving into an existing building, shimmer of resistance. times a day to make sure no one else is squatting there and it isn’t being guarded for future use by a development it should be the kind of structure that won’t make things With that in mind, we wish you luck as you establish your own worse for you in periods of extreme weather. Check that We are writing this guide so that others like us, victims of company. Neither of these things necessarily means you commons throughout the city. It will be hard work, but it will leaks can be repaired and mould removed. Tall buildings with the way things were, might join us in recreating how they can’t move there. If other squatters are willing to welcome be joyous too. It’s the only work that matters: the work of lots of small apartments might rise high above the flood could be. In the pages that follow, you’ll find practical advice you, that is wonderful. But it is better to know and ask. Our life. waters, but they are usually sweltering in summer. Avoid for setting up your own self-sufficient community in aban- network of communities is more likely to flourish if we don’t fight each other for space and resources. Also, some com- them especially if the windows only open on one side and doned buildings or open spaces, from fixing a leaking roof face direct sunlight in the summer. to purifying toxic soil. But a commons is more than just a panies are rather half-hearted about paying their security grouping of survivors and an abandoned plot of land. It’s a guards. Canary Island Commons was actually “founded” by relationship with shared spaces that are at once everyone’s a woman paid to guard the shopping complex who moved in Potential Sites when the pay stopped coming. If the guard doesn’t spend and no one’s, but always their own. That is why we are only These images are enlarged from the map in the centre of this guide. a lot of time by the site or often dozes off on duty, it might giving this guide to groups of people who agree to work with The historic Thames is in dark green, the flood-expanded Thames in us to set rules for how we will share common foraging areas be a sign that his or her employers don’t care very much light green, and the potential site in middle green. like the foreshore or uninhabited parks. A commons is only a about the property and, if you enter and secure it from commons if everyone who uses it agrees to treat it like one. the inside when the guard is distracted or away, they may TATE BRITAIN not try very hard to evict you. There are two indicators Pros: The stone structure, shaded en- In that spirit, here are some guidelines for managing the you will have more of a fight on your hands. If the build- trance, and white colour of the stone common spaces you create and the common resources all of ing has an alarm (often indicated by a siren box near the will provide relief in summer. our communities will share. entrance) and the alarm light is on, that means the owners Cons: The garden behind the aban- cared enough to restore electricity after flooding. If you doned museum floods regularly, so 1. DRAW THE BOUNDARIES OF YOUR COMMUNITY: see notices on a building or fenced-in space with the logos, you will have to create raised beds or This is the reason that we do not simply invite the entire pictured below, of Desert Islands or London Eden, it’s best break up the sidewalk to grow food. Armless Armada to stay at Canary Island Commons to stay clear. and are instead instructing others in establishing their WAPPING ROSE GARDEN own communities. Cruel as it might seem, a single commu- Pros: It is green space, suitable for nal space or foraging spot cannot sustain a limitless crowd growing, surrounded by brick buildings of newcomers who might not know the rules that make with good thermal mass, including a the community work. church and the Turk’s Head pub. Desert London Eden Cons: It is a relatively small space on Islands 1 which to make an island home. 2 B. Constructing in Open Space growing in Sydenham Hill Wood, but don’t take more than means it will absorb heat during the day and release it ST.