Life Always Finds a Way

As architects we are taught that it is our job to design everything and that nothing can be designed without us. As we can see with the formation of slums close to major cities like New Delhi this is anything but true. These micro cities, built by the very people that inhabit them, offer what I believe to be the truest form of architecture, even if it isn’t the safest or the cleanest. People living in these areas innovate, adapt and make the best of that space when living elsewhere isn’t a feasible option. There is an architectural lesson to be learned here about the role of the user in architecture. John Habraken mentioned how the old masters of modernity designed their buildings down to the furniture in them. This is an increasingly outdated practice today with the growing belief that people should be allowed to bring their own domesticity and ownership to a space, even if that space is a slum. If you prescribe to the belief that architecture is a humanitarian service then it is all the more important that this be possible for the inhabitants of our buildings because it is going to happen whether we want it to our not.