Space-Time
The idea of space-time compelles me. While I remain
unable to fully articulate the idea, it has become a thought that I am
consistently falling back to. I picture a four-dimensional fabric stretched over
the earth. It’s one that exists between and over buildings and it changes over time (consider the changing shape of
this fabric as New York City has developed - pictured below). It’s something
that everyone collectively experiences
and continually shapes through our
own everyday lives. I agree with Kaliski – ordinary people are just as much
designers of this space-time fabric as are architects. Most often, people can be more suitable and
intrinsically more agile in enacting change in everyday realities than the
process and politics involved with architecture
or urban design. We put so much
emphasis on understanding this fabric from above, shallowly asking users how
they use their own threads before zooming back out to study the shape and form
of their fabric through our own lens. In my point of view, Crawford has the
right idea – a bottom-up approach to the continual formation of our world’s
fabric of space-time is where impactful design lies.
New York City over time
Image courtesy of: http://de.1jux.net/scale_images/289800_b.jpg
I agree. I think it is going to take a radical shift in how we architect to make this work. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as the grand architect and start being architects for the people.
ReplyDeleteHow can we start to transition ourselves (and convince the rest of the profession) from the elite to the common?
I think in order to start transitioning ourselves from the grand architect to the architect for the people, we need to determine exactly what we are trying to transition to. We have talked a lot about how we need to design more for the people, but how to do that remains the larger question that will keep us from making the transition until we can answer that.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The first step to solving any problem is admitting there is one. We are not grand architects who can do no wrong. Many of us have seen very good examples of how to much power can create a terrible project. I think once the problem has been identified the only way to solve it is to move forward as a single entity. If only a small number of architects try to do what is right and the majority refuse to acknowledge the truth then no progress will ever be made.
ReplyDelete