Protectors of the Everyday

“Whether form-oriented modernists rejecting the Athens Charter prescriptions or corporate architecture working for market-driven developers, twentieth-century designers have found it nearly impossible to forge approaches that empower, rather than simulate, urban spontaneity.”

There was something different about the tone of this article which I can appreciate as it helped me as a designer take a deep breath and realize that it’s okay to not have all the solutions to the design challenges that face us, specifically in terms of the everyday urbanism. I found it important to recognize the aspects of the everyday to be the symptom of this impending urban transformation, but again letting that everyday, banal, and ordinary beauty of the city be the solution. We as architects get so caught up in always being quick to criticize and even quicker to jump to conclusions on a solution. I think that as an architect in this market driven so heavily by developers we’re called to be the “protectors” of the everyday. To conserve these informal urban spaces, full of everyday creativity, from the vultures of the developers who try to impose profit or regulations. “Convinced that everyday life is trivial, [designers} attempt to evade it” but by turning a blind eye to the spaces pertinent to our urban context we’re opening them up to the vulnerability of being destroyed. By allowing ourselves to soak in this widespread expertise of everyday life, instead of elevating ourselves above it, it serves as a leveling agent between the professionals and the users which in the long run I think sets us up for success in a more participatory design process (as discussed last week).