Trusting Architects


After watching the video about guerrilla architecture and Santiago Cirugeda’s efforts to create something for the community regardless of the laws in Spain, I forced myself to think about this situation from the users’ standpoint. I think what Cirugeda is doing in his country is incredibly brave. SO risky (I don’t think many in the U.S. would put their careers on the line to building something without a permit), but nonetheless brave. But I have to think about how it affects the people using these illegal structures. At one point in the video, it said that some of Cirugeda’s structures had to be dismantled and the residents displaced. As architects, at least in the U.S., the community puts trust in us without even thinking about it to create something where they don’t have to worry about if they will be kicked out or if the building was built illegally. I know that the political situation and the mindset of the general public are very different than in the U.S., but Cirugeda creating a bad name for architects from the point of view of the non-architect?


Comments

  1. I agree with you that many architects would not be willing to put their careers on the line here in the United States by practicing without a permit, and that Cirugeda's actions are very brave. I also was touched in the video of his humility and openness of saying that it has been really hard on him over the last 17 years where he has been sad and depressed because he is living and working with such low wages, not having a "proper job" in an office that pays well where he just does his work.

    With regard to your question, is he creating a bad name for architects, I don't think that he is making a bad name; he is teaching a younger generation a craft and a skill in building a school building and practicing / developing a community of people as a workforce. That school was made better by having a new classroom than its previous situation.

    One of the things I don't understand is where David was describing that Spain had laws that if it was built then it could stay; United States doesn't have laws like that and can shut down jobsites or dismantle buildings without a permit - as they did in the end of the video.

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  2. I thought this was a very interesting story and agree that he is brave to be building illegally. I think the community and support he is giving to communities and people without other options makes him a more relatable architect than the typical. I think as long as the non architects involved understand the situation and the risk he is showing how much of an impacts architects can have.

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  3. I agree with what Laura commented and would say that the non architects in the situation probably have a different perspective of him than if the same thing happened in the US. It is interesting to think about it happening here versus other places though and I am not sure that user groups as a whole in the US would go along with something being done illegally even if they really needed it.

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  4. I think it is our duty as architects to take initiative and do things like what Santiago is doing when the laws and politics of a place are neglecting its people.

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  5. This is indeed a brave act, even if the result is obvious. The improvement of the system is always the theme of every era.

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