Should Architecture work FOR us or WITH us?

Should Architecture work FOR us or WITH us?

Architecture is a service.  It is for someone.  But should architecture just work for someone or should it work with someone?   After reading this week’s pages I felt that critical regionalism is trying to bet back to becoming a part of the community it is for instead of being alien to it.  To try to create a member of the existing society instead of creating a whole new society, creating segregation between what was trying to be sophisticated and what they were considering mere peasants.  

The idea of for us VS with us is comparable to the idea of what someone thinks is best for us VS what is here and working in our community.  Creating something that fits into the mold of a certain community will function much better that an idea of utopia because people know their community. They know how it works, they know the ins and outs, and they don’t want to change what they know because an outsider tells them its better.  They want something that feels like home and that works and adapts with the way they work and function.