Public Housing: Learning from the past

They say we learn from the past, but why does it seem we keep making the same mistakes over and over again? To reconcile this issue, I think we must see the discipline of architecture as a participant in organizing society much like the user can be a participant (and should be) to the architect. One doesn’t necessarily need the other to exist, but their cooperation and collaboration can result in something beyond their own capabilities if they were to stay autonomous. Just like an architect must synthesize and filter the user’s wants and needs, the built environment becomes the same filter for architecture itself: a living organism that adapts in its own ways telling us what stays and what goes, what works and what doesn’t.

If we take a look at urban housing projects throughout the world, we see first-hand the disasters that can ensue, as seen with Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, Missouri. And for some reason, we still haven’t figured out what works and doesn’t even after history has told us differently. But we can also find examples of how architects can begin to rethink the role of the user to promote more sustainable housing projects, as seen Alejandro Aravena’s project in Iquique, Chile. Here, we see how to appropriate space in a way that utilizes the energy of people and gives them ownership and freedom to determine the way in which they live – to accommodate their ordinary.

Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis, Missouri

Housing Project, Iquique, Chile

If we say we learn from the past then why do we keep seeing examples of architects exhausting one’s efforts on designing something special, rather than focusing on creating something of high quality and of value. For the ordinary, this means that we must not try to control it, but rather embrace it, to frame the ordinary in a way that it can grow to become more than what we could have imagined on paper. That is what makes the discipline of architecture so unique, architects are entrusted in shaping society, to envision the potential of space as well as the people who inhabit it. I think this is a direct correlation to how one deals with the constraints in which we develop this framework and what will ultimately differentiate those who use architecture as a platform to design something “special” rather than something of high quality.