Public project is very hard
I participated in two public project design until right now. One is my intern at Meadors Inc. at Charleston, 2016 summer. Another one is our Fluid studio project at Asheville, 2017 fall semester.
The first one is about homeless housing project. About more than one hundred homeless people were forced to move away from their tent city under the bridge. The residents didn't like these homeless people. So they called the police to force them away. My firm thinks it is a good opportunity to do something for these people, an affordable housing for them. There is no client, no government. I don't know what is going on at the first beginning. They asked me to choose the site by myself, I can do whatever I want. But they said it is good to choose a place beside MUSC, a very good hospital in Charleston. I found a parking lot beside this hospital, had so many research about homeless people, hope someone would like my design. I even found a book "Tent City", which was very cool. And I went to a homeless shelter to be volunteer serving their food. I tried to understand whom am I design something for. Finally, my design came out, even my boss invited a reporter of a newspaper to come and report my design. Then my firm contacted with MUSC, hoping they would use my design and build something on their parking lots. And then, no feedback, no afterward.
I think there was some reason. Maybe these big guys from the hospital just didn't care about these homeless people. They already had their consideration about that land. Actually, it was. Second, no clients. You just designed something depended on your thoughts. The reality was very complicated. The developers know more things underground. They even can come up something better than you. What they concern the most is the money. The capital operation system forced them to do this. Third, you can not fully understand the homeless people. When I served at that shelter. I watched all kinds of people came for food. Some of them are very young, some of them came back three or four times to get the same food, some of them were very strong.
So, the situation is even harder than you think. That is why not so many architects can do the public project. There must be some big guy behind to support you. And many people eager to help you.
The first one is about homeless housing project. About more than one hundred homeless people were forced to move away from their tent city under the bridge. The residents didn't like these homeless people. So they called the police to force them away. My firm thinks it is a good opportunity to do something for these people, an affordable housing for them. There is no client, no government. I don't know what is going on at the first beginning. They asked me to choose the site by myself, I can do whatever I want. But they said it is good to choose a place beside MUSC, a very good hospital in Charleston. I found a parking lot beside this hospital, had so many research about homeless people, hope someone would like my design. I even found a book "Tent City", which was very cool. And I went to a homeless shelter to be volunteer serving their food. I tried to understand whom am I design something for. Finally, my design came out, even my boss invited a reporter of a newspaper to come and report my design. Then my firm contacted with MUSC, hoping they would use my design and build something on their parking lots. And then, no feedback, no afterward.
I think there was some reason. Maybe these big guys from the hospital just didn't care about these homeless people. They already had their consideration about that land. Actually, it was. Second, no clients. You just designed something depended on your thoughts. The reality was very complicated. The developers know more things underground. They even can come up something better than you. What they concern the most is the money. The capital operation system forced them to do this. Third, you can not fully understand the homeless people. When I served at that shelter. I watched all kinds of people came for food. Some of them are very young, some of them came back three or four times to get the same food, some of them were very strong.
So, the situation is even harder than you think. That is why not so many architects can do the public project. There must be some big guy behind to support you. And many people eager to help you.
Yage, I have had a similar experience where we were only able to complete a public project because we had some city member support and one important resident's support. If we did not have this support, similar to your project, I don't think ours would have been completed.
ReplyDeleteAs i mentioned in the class aswell. This kind of reality is very frustrating and you tend to feel more helpless. This i feel is a world wide truth and the ugly reality for most of the slum redevelopment initiatives too in my Country.I wish someone would take a step back and try to find a solution for dealing with this rather than another innovative way to solve the situation.
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