Objectifying Everyday Life

Everyday life is as diverse as the people and activities that inhabit it, so how can we ask architecture to accommodate all of this in singular? By planting something so concrete within the built environment, we are saying that we have some control over it, this is simply not true. But when we begin to construct a framework that embraces and promotes everyday life, it is here, in this liminal state, where we find common threads that help weave together a fabric for the everyday: people’s values. I’m not talking about morality, but about what strikes at our hearts and souls, the joy, excitement, and sense of well-being. I believe architects have the responsibility in creating places for these multiple engagements and social overlaps, where we allow the story of everyday life to write itself.

Architecture acts as a threshold for desires and actions to collide, help bring meaning to our lives, and shape and organize our society. It should not be seen as a way to accommodate or control the ordinary of everyday life but to capture the little details taking place in the in-between spaces. Architecture should be thought of as a medium in which we project the everyday life in new arrangements and forms, not to succumb to “the mediocrity of our own condition.” It’s about allowing space to be flexible and to encourage people to use it how they see fit. Somewhere between the quotidian and fads. This approach is congruent with the idea of architecture being tactic, where the people and activities interpret the space in how it should be used.

When we talk about architecture itself, can it be ordinary to be successful? This is a question of authenticity. One thing about everyday life and the ordinary is that it is the truest nature of our existence, but architecture wants to be different, to rethink the ordinary. This is the liminal state of transition and ambiguity in which architects can lose the battle when designing for everyday life. In order to resolve this problem, I think it is necessary for architects to always be sensible to the context as well as the users, but at the same time strive to be innovative. Everyday life is fed up with being objectified.

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