Convivial Ground, a book by Constructlab

Piece by piece Convivial Ground invites the reader to discover the work of the transdisciplinary European design-build network Constructlab. Taking Ivan Illich’s understanding of conviviality as a departure point, the essays, conversations, stories, and images in the book reflect on the specificities of collaborative practices as situated experiments, and on their possible roles in the creation of convivial societies. Exploring contemporary conditions of togetherness, learning, and working, the book is not a "how-to" guide, but an invitation to write new convivial narratives cooperatively.

One book : many ways and voices to tell many stories at once

There are many possible narratives to approach Constructlab projects. The network always tries hard to generate inclusive projects that speak to all, from the youngest kids to the oldest ones, from any social, educational or cultural background. The book is no exception. Therefore, Constructlab thought of bringing their stories in different forms and formats. Within the pages of the book, you will find theoretical essays, interviews, conversations but also short narrative stories, drawings and images organized thematically or typologically.
Along 480 pages, you will read
3 essays
39 narrative stories
3 convivial conversations (with Thierry Paquot, Tiphaine Abenia + Hae-Won Shin, and Mathilde Sauzet)
More than 100 pages of drawings and images from various projects

With contributions from

Tiphaine Abenia, Sara Belrhaiti, Laetitia Chamekh, Sofia Costa Pinto, Bert de Backer, Johanna Dehio, Mascha Fehse, Noel Fettingsmith, Mathilde Gintz, Julie Guiches, Patrick Hubmann, Jan Korbes, Alex Lambert, Pascal Lazarus, Benoit Lorent, Linus Lutz, David Moritz, Thierry Paquot, Joanne Pouzenc, Carla Rangel, Alexander Römer, Mathilde Sauzet, Hae Won Shin, Merril Sinéus, Angie Volk, Malte von Braun and Peter Zuiderwijk.

The network has put a lot of time and energy into gathering the content of this book – the effort it takes to create the projects beforehand not even counted. But unfortunately time and energy do not pay for print and paper. To guarantee the launch of the book in March 2023, we need your participation now.

You will receive your own copy!

With your help, we will be able to cover the printing and editorial costs, ensuring a high quality of the edition.

You would like to support the project and the network ?

If you want to support our projects and the network, feel free to add a little something to the amount you want to pay for the book. You can also get in touch with the local entities of the network if you want to support us locally : so far, there is an association in Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland.