Looking through the glass

“Seeking to increase justice or to decrease injustice is a fundamental objective in all societies, a foundational principle for sustaining human dignity and fairness.” Edward Soja

“Architecture, more than any other art form, is a social art and must rest on the social and cultural base of its time and place. “ Samuel Mockbee

 

The Rural Studio by Samuel Mockbee was the text I have most enjoyed reading so far this semester. We have been talking about how architecture can set a tone, change a culture, create a space for participation (politics), or even how an ideology can influence building style, a master plan, or a lifestyle (like suburbia). However, I believe Samuel Mockbee’s personal story goes to the point I mentioned in previous blogs. The authors Louis Althusser, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Edgar Morin, and even Marx defend theories that social groups may subconsciously reproduce believes, culture, and ideologies that they do not consciously embrace (whether it is in the ethical, social, or cultural realm). In the case of Samuel Mockbee, he grew up with deep southern roots reproducing the “white supremacist” ideology, until he realized that he was reproducing contradicting ideologies, or at least what he was not striving for. In building for a poor community, so that this community would not fall into the cycle of poverty, he realized some of the causes of the social disparity. Personally, I can see myself in his shoes in many different ways, and maybe that is why I liked the story very much. Also, I don’t believe breaking the ideological pattern is very easy.  The texts The Rural Studio and The City and Spatial Justice by Edward Soja gave me a more positive perspective than Althusser, Pasolini, and Marx, for example. They gave me an almost transcendent way of looking at architecture, and I see it as a solution for breaking some unhealthy ideological patterns like in “Los Angeles movement” or in Samuel Mockebee’s awakening. These texts remind me that we all are here on the earth learning, and that architecture can be a tool for enlightenment.

 

Riot in Rio de Janeiro downtown.

www.noticias.r7.com

 

 

Some people believe that Brasilia was scaled to avoid Riots. www.oglobo.globo.com