Making It Right

"Spatial justice as such is not a substitute or alternative to social, economic, or other forms of justice but rather a way of looking at justice from a critical spatial perspective." - Soja

The issue of justice is very political. Social justice and economic justice are always hot topic issues in each election, and every political party has a strong opinion for a solution. Spatial justice, however, is not a common buzz word heard in debates. That is because the issue of space is not commonly recognized by the general public... at least not in a critical way. Space is economic. Yet organizations like Rural Studio and Make It Right recognize the value of good space and advocate for spatial justice for all, especially the ones that cannot afford it. 

Make It Right is a campaign led by Brad Pitt to rebuild the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, this neighborhood was left completely demolished, misplacing thousands of residence who did not have the money to rebuild. 
Pitt states:

The message (of Make It Right) was to take this spot that was emblematic of such human failure and to make it a human success story on how we can build in the future, how we can build for families, how we can build with quality, and how we can build with the community under their guidelines."

Despite the success of the endeavor (109 houses built by the 10 year anniversary of Katrina), critics of the effort have much to say. Much like the criticisms of Rural Studio, some argue that "starchitects" are taking advantage of the poor to design with complete creative freedom. They criticize the style and aesthetics of these structures, but this argument is superficial. They fail to consider that good space could be a result of unconventional forms. Instead of throwing up low quality homes for housing big numbers, they are delivering quality design that brings justice to the people that were unjustly forced out of their homes. Instead of delivering subpar replacements, they are providing better: houses that respond to the neighborhood, culture, people, and prepare for storms in the future. This seems like justice to me.

Architects recognize that good architecture is a result of good space, not mere aesthetics. Yes, we still want to design attractive buildings, but more importantly we seek to design a structure that creates successful space for human life. This is justice that we seek in our design. And in my opinion, the general public still fails to understand this as the role of the architect. Therefore this is why we find opposition to seemingly great exploits like the work of Rural Studio or Make It Right. Instead of recognizing the call to act for spatial justice, it is thought that architects are exploiting situations for their own glory.. overstepping their boundaries in the name of architecture.