Architecture for Living or Living for Architecture?

When architects design, most of the time, we design how things are supposed to be used with very little wiggle room. I think that this week’s topic, everyday urbanism, is particularly interesting to me because it brings in that human interaction with architecture which shapes and molds it into something much richer than its original inception. We know, or we should know, that people are going to make things easier on themselves, and personalize their surroundings, so why shouldn’t we facilitate this, rather than combat it?

The Moriyama House by Sanaa addresses this and captures it particularly well. With spaces completely separated from one another, the transition areas, the circulation space starts to become the most utilized space in the house (or out of the house). Low hanging windows become seats, or places to enter and exit the room, things (which people have – shocker) litter and occupy the spaces showing that the plain, white, simple, modern boxes actually do get lived in. This is my kind of architecture. Put people in the photographs, actually living, not just pretending to live with neat little piles of literature on their designer coffee stand in front of an Eames chair. This is a pure example of creating a piece of architecture for living.