Informal Occupation or Informal Design? [Public Shaming Post #1]

There’s something visceral that draws me to the informal occupation of buildings like Centro Financiero Confinanzas - the Tower of David. Perhaps it’s the closeness of the “architecture” to the present need and condition, or the romantic notion of ad hoc community organization manifesting itself in action. I think the profession of architecture can learn from informal design in the sense that the result is by definition more closely related to the user. Oftentimes, our observations of informal design are limited to studying the result. I wonder what a study of the informal design process of a building like the Tower of David would look like? Could the decision making process be deconstructed similarly to a formal design project? How would it differ? My guess is that the process would be very similar, and that the primary difference would be in the documentation (or lack thereof.) In this way, could a formal process actually inhibit a more user-oriented design?