Being Human

As a profession we are having to regain our humanity.  In “Questions That Will Not Go Away” and “The Structure of the Ordinary”, N. John Habraken writes about the start of architecture serving the elite programs.

“Churches, fortresses, palaces, mansions, and similarly exceptional interventions were designed with an otherwise self-sustaining built environment” (The Structure).  

His article “Questions That Will Not Go Away” mirrors this thought of a self-sustaining fabric saying,

“Architecture as an international culture, found its place in the common fabric which took care of itself, had always been there, and was what those who made architecture could depend on” (Questions).

Looking back to our history, as Habraken does, are we over-stepping where architecture was meant to be?  We gravitated to the elite in the initial stages of our profession, but have we tried too hard to hold onto the elite monopoly of building?  I am guilty of this with many people.  I look at track homes and am sad that “no one thought about the design” and that it “could be anywhere.”  This is seems to be a general view of architects and architecture students, but what if we decided to focus our energy on the public buildings and allow the fabric of the rest of the world to create itself?

Would it lead to hard conditions found in the Kowloon Walled City or the Tower of David?  Would it be that our public space becomes richer because of the new energies poured into it?