gods no longer

While watching the talk by Alejandro Aravena I was struck by the assumption that our society makes (and Aravena criticized) about the poor. That those who are poor will have a lower quality of life. And since they are poor, they will accept that. And since we are building for the poor, that building will be poor in something. Poor in identity, in availability, in materials, in cost, in space, in functionality.

“Acknowledging their rights to have things and their rights to express themselves”

This quite by Giancarlo De Carlo speaks about the user or participant in general. We are not gods. We do have hands that draw invisible lines that other can’t comprehend. We can control the lives of other people, but that does not give us the right to only obey our own rules or agenda. We are not even gods come to earth. Perfection that deigns to interact with those below us. We are simply people who have the opportunity to better lives.