Give the people themselves.
"We don't like it, but it's not your fault"
-Client of Habraken
This quote is the epitome of Habraken's values. The user made the decisions about how the space was to be outfitted. They are able to take ownership of the design of the space and either like it or not on its own merit. In this way, they have a visceral relationship with the space. The space is theirs, in the design and in the future. They are empowered to make it and change it as they see fit. The architecture is no longer the form or the ornament or the infill. The architecture is the simple idea of providing a space for people to be themselves. The layers of the building stem out of this idea. The structure comes from the necessity for freedom.
Give the people simplicity.
_modernists
Give the people what they want.
_post modernists
Give the people themselves.
_habraken
-Client of Habraken
This quote is the epitome of Habraken's values. The user made the decisions about how the space was to be outfitted. They are able to take ownership of the design of the space and either like it or not on its own merit. In this way, they have a visceral relationship with the space. The space is theirs, in the design and in the future. They are empowered to make it and change it as they see fit. The architecture is no longer the form or the ornament or the infill. The architecture is the simple idea of providing a space for people to be themselves. The layers of the building stem out of this idea. The structure comes from the necessity for freedom.
Give the people simplicity.
_modernists
Give the people what they want.
_post modernists
Give the people themselves.
_habraken
Great post! I agree that this is a great way to describe nowadays tendencies in the design. And strangely contemporary education in most cases does not emphasize this idea unfortunately. Architects are loosing a lot while they fight it instead of learning how to work with it.
ReplyDeleteYour beginning quote also brings up the key point that even though the client designs it, doesn't necessarily mean they will love it. You could say this is because they do not have the design expertise of architects, but I think this is part of the process everyone must go through to finding out exactly what you like, and in this case it is a metacognitive learning process of the user instead of a external learning process of the architect.
ReplyDelete