MANIFOLD ENCLOSURES

Exhibition and Article
Exhibition: Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2023 (Sep-Oct 2023)
Article: Public Culture, (Sep 2022)
Author: Janette Kim, with Hannah Leathers and Bennett Grisley

In 2021, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) purchased Esther's Orbit Room—the last remaining venue of Oakland's West Coast blues scene—to build a haven for Black culture and livelihood. As a novel system of land ownership inspired by land trusts, cooperatives, and social movements, EB PREC orchestrates local, collective governance to harness the staying power of ownership and resist its commodification. EB PREC's complex institutional structure is mirrored in the manifold enclosures of the Orbit Room property, which expands, contracts, and subdivides an ever-contested form of parcelization.

As an architectural designer and member of EB PREC, Janette Kim combines an analysis of the Orbit Room's as-built conditions with an institutional portrait of EB PREC. This exhibition and article analyze the institution and architecture of Esther‘s, through archival maps, oral histories, and consultants’ reports that reflect on the site’s long history. They show how multiple definitions of ownership can coexist in the same space. Esther’s Orbit Room is a fortress, a village, a cove, and a porous landscape. Together, these manifold enclosures empower the site’s stewards to recombine and negotiate a more expansive vision of ownership.

To access this project, please see:

• Janette Kim; “Manifold Enclosures: Decommodifying Property at Esther's Orbit Room in West Oakland.” Public Culture 1 September 2022; 34 (3 (98)): 453–472. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-9937368

• Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2023, Global Cities Exhibition, “Parallel Grounds” theme. Curated by Jinyoung Lim, Sang Hoon Youm,

For more on property ownership, please see:

• Videos from the symposium at California College of the Arts called “Reclaiming Land: Decommodifying Property for Racial and Social Equity.”

• Videos from the panel discussion at California College of the Arts called “Reclaiming Land: from Dispossession to Reciprocity.”

• A book called Property Playbook edited by Janette Kim with contributions by Sanyukta Bhagwat, Craig Dias, Jason Gonzalez, Shih Ting Huang, Lauren Jones, Chaitanya Khurana, Savannah Lindsey, Kyle Matlock, Kevin Pham, Abigail Rockwell, Alexander Roos, Marion Rosas, Noni Session, and Shira Shaham.