Thinking past ourselves and looking towards others.

This week has really opened my eyes to two very important and yet simple questions, who and why.   I think everyone should ask themselves before starting a project, and I think we should look at what has historically been the answers to these questions so that we can make informed decisions on whether or not to think the same or to change. For me I know that historically the answer for who has always been the wealthy because they were the only ones that could afford the services of and architect and they had the resources to build the projects. Which answers the next question of why. Building is not cheap and it takes money. It takes money to design and it takes money to build, but should we as professionals that have a responsibility to public good to let that we the only thing that drives us? For me the answer is no. Now before I continue that does not mean I think that we should turn our backs on designing new student centers and hospitals. I also do not think that we should forget engineers and professional trades that construct the buildings once they are designed. My reason for saying no is because there are many people who cannot afford to hire tradesmen and architects. There are people in this world who can barely afford to feed themselves and who are we to say they do not deserve a safe place to sleep? I think that looking at the work of Walter Seagal and Alejandro Aravena should not make us feel as if we are trying to take away jobs from stilled labor and causing problems. I think we should look at the work that they did as giving people who we forgot a chance at a safe home. 863 million people currently live in slums around the world. These people are never going to be able to afford to build a nice designer house. We are not taking jobs away from skilled labor. However, if we had a system like Alejandro Aravena were we could give them means of a safer living living we could solve so many problems. No, this still would have problems and it would not solve everything but I think we need to start making these steps in the right direction and eventually we will get there.The images below are current building practices in slums. Clearly these types of buildings are not safe but it is all they have. Now imagine if these could be replaced with a modular system that was safe.