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SPCC A Casa Amarela
  • Introduction
  • Intro
  • Macieira
  • 001 opening story
  • 002 first weeks of SPCC
  • 003 first informal group meeting
  • 004 SPCC - the start
  • 005 another day, another floor
  • 007 it lives!
  • 006 Rainbow Rooms
  • 008 didn't do shit
  • 009 no water again
  • 010 More work done!
  • 011 waterworks
  • 012 a third of a wall
  • 013 First room
  • 014 One wood wall up and Fuchsia room up!
  • 015 yes officer
  • 016 red room
  • 017 shower
  • 018 hydrant fixed
  • 019 decor
  • 020 orange room
  • 021 Latest News
  • 022 Windows and etc.
  • 023 Electricity!
  • Hydro Pole
  • 024 ARRRRRRRRRRRR
  • 026 squats, social centres, free spaces...
  • 025 squats, social centres, free spaces...
  • 027 Personalitty issues
  • 029 new website look
  • 030 S's Birthday Party!
  • 031 spoils of war
  • 032 water and doors
  • 033 entropy of partying
  • 035 work
  • 034 house meeting
  • 036 yellow room
  • 037 pics
  • 038 visitors
  • 028 an emphasis on exuberance
  • 040 builder gathering
  • 039 progress?
  • 042 Update
  • 043 barbecue
  • 044 tiki bar
  • 045 a valued location
  • 046 teste
  • 047 Gallery
  • 048 first CS guests
  • 049 Chill Out progress
  • 050 tipping point
  • 051 swimming pool
  • 053 the reality of good and evil in all of us
  • 054 Uff
  • 052 Harald's birthday
  • 055 positive derivative
  • 056 Free Shop
  • 057 New era?
  • 058 helpex approved!
  • 060 another party another breakthrough
  • 062 back to basics
  • 063 sunshine AC
  • 064 our DIY photovoltaic system
  • 065 ghetto techno
  • 066 churrasco anti nacionalista + kawak kay sound system
  • 067 dug up roots
  • 068 Christian Louboutin
  • 069 we did it!
  • 070 First RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE!
  • 072 our first humanure factory
  • 073 blue thursday
  • 074 short stop
  • 075 indulge
  • 076 thank you
  • 077 Kat's account of her stay (and their trip)
  • 078 first request study results
  • 079 humanure
  • 080 Chill Out bar progress
  • 081 low tech hiatus
  • 082 mini rave + kawak kay sound system + free food + free booze
  • 083 free means fun
  • 084 dinner + kawak kay sound system + R's birthday party
  • 085 heat wave hangover
  • 086 Dry toilets, humanure, and closing the sewage loop
  • 087 mild frustration
  • 088 never there when shit happens
  • 089 Enough is enough!
  • 091 good times are back
  • 092 Naked man, pushing shopping cart with a shot gun?
  • 093 Solar panel photos
  • 094 best registry cleaner
  • 095 3ꠁniversᲩo Associa磯 Musical INDUSTRIAL PT / 3rd anniversary of the INDUSTRIAL PT non-profit musi
  • 096 new BFB (Big Fucking Battery)
  • 097 new subwoofer, extra hands
  • 098 hitchhiker gathering craze
  • 099 hitchhiker gathering flash rave + KKSS
  • 100 new work ethics thanks to... work ethics
  • 101 Hitch hikers invasion, part 2, can it be?
  • 102 windmills, swimming pools, cane constructions, gardens and anarcho-syndicalism
  • 059 Nomad Base
  • 103 power struggles, again
  • 104 Big issues, and big decisions to be made
  • 105 solar workshop
  • 106 Today's game
  • 108 parties, philosophies and cultural exchange
  • 107 Flash workshop day + communal dinner + debate
  • 109 fire sculptures and bunker tracks
  • 110 solar energy shortcomings
  • 090 cane frames
  • 111 Hitchhiking gathering and issues gone
  • 112 plumbing fire
  • 113 big brother okupa
  • 114 power
  • 116 holidays and post boomers
  • 117 Return to the squat
  • 118 first google guest
  • 119 on planning
  • 120 Two weeks at SPCC
  • 121 Demolishing is coming!!
  • 122 paintathon
  • 123 A journey
  • 124 why i choose to celebrate the demolition
  • 126 More signs of demolition
  • 127 Baile da Contra Cultura
  • 128 what works, what doesn't work
  • 129 Topographers on site, and kids.
  • 130 the demolition crew and the freeloader crew
  • 131 2 weeks to close the squat!
  • 132 impromptu meeting, couriers and our deadline
  • 134 another paintathon
  • 135 facts, stories and politics
  • 133 THE BIG DEMOLITION PARTY - PAINT THE FUCK UP
  • 136 party people
  • 137 dear spcc
  • 138 Last words
  • 139 How to make a solar panel
  • 141 demolition on its way, but not today
  • 061 About
  • 142 follow up on our characters
  • 143 can't trust a contractor
  • 144 the big demolition party short video
  • 145 new dates for the demolition
  • 146 moving on digitally
  • 147 all gone! SPCC has been cleared!
  • 115 thanks and more
  • 148 SPCC featured in the german Jungle World
  • 150 where you can find me
  • 151 Acts change Facts: Nicolas's movie about SPCC
  • medo e ignorância no controlo policial
  • 152 SPCC featured in the travel comic compilation "Boring Europa"
  • 153 my experience at SPCC featured in an interview about my experience as an engineering student
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004 SPCC - the start

Previous003 first informal group meetingNext005 another day, another floor

Last updated 5 years ago

From: NebulaX Date: 2010-03-03 11:41:46 Title: SPCC - the start

Two years ago I started to think about having a place where I could have my photography studio and share my art, organize small events, performances, workshops, etc. The idea eventually evolved to some kind of a non-profit cultural center. I was living in Porto, and wanted to return to my hometown - Lisbon. I started to plan my return to Lisbon and at the same time planning the cultural center. The CC would feature a venue room for concerts, dj partys and maybe theatre performances, a room for a book and cd library, and also a space for lectures and workshops. All of this including having other persons working on it, sharing their own ideas and concepts, and if possible from many other countries. What I call a living-free-spirited-building.

I was working again, and the oportunity to be transfered to Lisbon came. By October my path crossed with J's and we realized that we had the same vision/idea to have a non profit cultural center. In December from the last year my company gave me the green light for the transfer and so I came to Lisbon and ended up living in J's house. There i met other's (A, L and S) since he hosts couchsurfers from all over the world, and who had similar plans or just wanted to make a squat. As time passed and we discussed the idea we went looking for a place to squat in one of our urban exploring sessions.

We found a perfect building for the concept: a massive yellow building with 4 floors, plus a roof. The building was perfect: simple, geometric and in great condition with just a few windows broken and a lot of dirt and garbage, and most important it had no neighboors!

Everyone agreed that that building was perfect, so we started to look up for information about it. I did some phreaking on the name of the company that was written on the building's front wall, and we ended up discovering that it had been sold to a huge multinational group 7 years ago. We searched for possible plans for that area and found nothing.

We decided that it was time to squat that building.

Things were doing great. We had one floor cleaned up, everybody was excited about the squatting and the project itself. We found that there was a guy living there, but once we met him and explained our idea he was cool with it and even started to help us out.

By this time G showed in J's house through couchsurfing and started to help us. The guys found out one day when they were cleaning that the building was now owned by Galp, and that area was going to be demolished in 2014, so we could stay there til then.

Now that we knew that we could stay there without the risk of being evicted the hard work started. I had a plan for the rooms. Since building fake walls was too expensive or recycling bricks would take us too long, i came up with the idea of making the walls with colorful fabrics instead. It was cheaper, easy to make and it would preserve the light on the floor, plus it would add a beautiful effect. I showed everyone the idea that I had and everyone liked it.

Since nobody proposed any other idea for the rooms, me and J went to buy stuff for the rooms and started to build the thing up. By this time some of the squatters started to feel excluded and not participant enough, and litle conflicts started to show up. Me and J kinda snapped out, but things got cleared with a nice talk in which I explained my opinions on how things should be done in such a big project, and for example if person has an idea, that idea should presented to others, and if nobody presents any other the first and only idea should be put in practice, which was what me and J did with the rooms project. I also made clear that despite the fact that I was working alone on that particular idea I was always open to opinions and tips, and this should be applied to any other similar event. Two heads are better than one.

This little conflict was solved, and then two other guys that we know got evicted from their squat and somebody suggested that they could stay in the yellow building. This situation turned out to be a bit complicated because the couple (P and M) have 4 dogs. Plus they wanted to build their own room with fake walls because of the dogs and because they wanted their privacy, wich i totally understand. But that ended up leading me to another problem: fabrics and dogs don't match. So i thought about putting their room in the further corner and use wood and then build up the rest of the rooms has it was planned. The dogs will still have access to the fabric rooms, but lets just see out it works.

Today, me, A, L and S went there. Me and L got a shovel and big metal plate to help with the floor-cleaning. The girls stayed there and I went sewing-machine hunting and wandered for hours until I found one. Now I can start to make the fabrics for the rooms, because i couldn't handle it if i was going to sew by hand around 60 meters of fabric. And the 4th floor is cleaned!

With P, M and O moving in we needed to put them up to what we were doing. I was afraid that they wouldn't agree or like our project, but J and I went there last night and they ended up digging the idea. Today we had our first meeting I guess. We reviewed the project and we decided that for now, till the hosting floor is ready we're not accepting anyone else. Now we're 8 people, ones with great ideas, others with experience on squatting and I guess everybody is excited about the project, and we're still getting to know each other.

This is my very own and personal opinion. We are moving in calmly and planning all things pretty well so that the building and the project works as good as possible. My experience in these kind of things (sometimes with larger groups) tells me that dealing with a large group of people (more than 3 for example) sometimes is hard and even frustrating in some situations. Not everybody communicates and express their ideas in the same way, and we sure don't have the same vision and opinions on different subjects and it's hard to get to a consensus about problems or situations. Right now I'm neither optimistic or pessimistic I guess. I'm just waiting to see how it's going to work.

Today I got a sewing machine, because I can't handle to work by hand on about 60 meters of fabric. Hopefully tomorrow the first room is ready.

<3

soares.b.tatiana@gmail.com