WEIMAR HOUSING
AN ARCHIVE
Wandering objects — Schenke
We view housing as a collection of objects that were put together. Whilst looking for a place that allows an exchange in objects, we stumbled upon Schenke, a physical place where people donate their things which then can be taken to a new home. We collected stories of donated objects, their previous owners and future uses of taken objects. Personal stories of housing through objects allowed us a glimpse into post-modern housing, being affected among other things by flexibility, new ways of consumerism, and personal memories.
About Schenke
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"Schenke lives on good things that are no longer used - we offer them a new home until new owners and uses are found." [1]
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Founded in 2018, had 2 previous locations
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All work is done on a voluntary basis
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Objects are taken on donation basis
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Also conducts DIY-Workshops
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Ambition to have stronger impact on politics
Refer to the Schenke's website (in German) for detailed information.
Schenke provides affordable options, transitional support, and creative opportunities for individuals to adapt and customize their living spaces, reflecting the flexibility needed in various housing situations.
Flexibility of housing
Nowadays we live with one of the main narratives of being flexible, for our job, in our free time and also for our home and housing.
Many young people can only afford to rent a place to live in, the issue of buying real estate and settling down in a city increased in the past few decades.
A lot of the students we met at Schenke were taking objects to fill their home or told stories about how they gathered their interior of their room, flat or studio together from things people sorted out and put on the street or brought to Schenke.
Making use of objects that belonged to others that might have moved away leaving behind what was too heavy or just not to their liking anymore.
In Weimar you find often things on the street, a chair, a fridge, or dishes. These objects might have lost value for one person but by not being thrown away they might find a person that values them again.
Throughout one month we visited Schenke in different days of the week and time, and we systematically photographed one spot there. As you can see, it changed a lot. This constant movement of things is also visible in our everyday life.
Participatory mapping
When carrying out research at Schenke, we asked its visitors to participate in the mapping. While explaining the goals of our project, we also got a chance to ask questions on why people visit Schenke, and why they bring and/or take things from there.
Legend of the map:
Blue — locations where things were brought from
Green — locations where things were taken to
Stories of objects
The Instagram account is the way we documented our project, but also an archive itself. Our goal was also to provoke a discussion on topics related to consumerism and second-hand usage of things.
