Le Garage Moderne is an old factory building of the 19th century situated in the heart of the Bacalan neighbourhood, former industrial and port area of Bordeaux now under drastic regeneration process into residence and cultural production. GM started as a citizen initiative, where people could repair their cars but consequently developed into a vibrant social center providing support for disadvantaged people, space for cultural production and community organising.
Alamar is a new city built in the 1970s in the outskirts of La Habana, Cuba, mostly with rudimental prefabricated technologies inherited from the soviets. It has been put in place through self-construction teams of 32 citizens employed in the so called microbrigadas: a system affecting not only the way the physical environment has been produced, but also the social texture formed in the process.