A world without the Architect

What is the role of the architect and the occupant?  How does one inevitably effect the other?  To answer these questions I think we need to look at what roles each takes within the life of the building and how we both effectively contradict the other sometimes. In the reading The Structure of the Ordinary, Habraken says that there is no distinction between the people who create and the people who use, but is that actually true? Now my argument is not saying that Habraken is wrong but that he did not tell the whole story. I think that the correlation between the creators and users has changed several times over the centuries and that just because the relationship between creator and user is close now does not mean it will always be that way. Throughout most of history when shelters were first being created it was often that the one who made the shelter was also the one who used it, but in more recent years we have seen designers and architects that have moved away from thinking about the user and only focused on their ideas. However, in our society today it is the architect who creates the space with the users in mind. We have began to go back to thinking about how the space will feel for the occupant. I think that Habraken was right for now but in the ripples of architecture it has not always been true so we should not ignore that. As designers every move we make can cause comfort or harm to the user so making sure that they are not forgotten within the design process is key to keeping a steady balance of designer and user and not sway to a world where architecture is beautiful but unusable.

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