Raising Water-Wareness – (Re)Commoning the Urban Aquatic

On 14th February 2019, citizens in the canton of Zurich voted 54.6% against the privatisation of its water management. Although a victory for direct democracy, this slight majority demonstrates the increasing threat that is posed to water access in the city, and its undeniable role within the immediate future of the Anthropocene. How can we address the inequalities to the global distribution of commons, and more specifically water?

The aim of this proposal is to start from these three cities as our personal backgrounds, to understand the access to water as a common good within other urban contexts. Utilising a collaborative methodology that focuses on process rather than product, we propose to investigate water use through three lenses: Infrastructure, Energy and Climate, and the Social-Spatial.