Giancarlo De Carlo & Parks and Rec

While I realized it before, Giancarlo De Carlo's Architecture's public put it pretty clearly how the ideals that existed with the modernist movement are with us well beyond just building form. The idea that a solid blanket of architecture could be applied to any community or site might be behind us but those ideals are still very much with us in the way we interact with the public. Giancarlo talks about it in a couple quotes,

...The plan is usually conceived assuming that it is easier, quicker and more profitable to condition people than to condition the environment...

To discover the real needs of the users therefore means exposing and acknowledging their rights to have things and their rights to express themselves...

To come to the people to really see what their needs are and acknowledge them as being valid, is something beyond the architecture we typically do. It really made me think of the show Parks and Rec. In it, the fictional town of Pawnee and its characters frequently hold town hall meetings. They are hilarious, messy and almost nothing comes from them but it says something about the democratic process. 

Expectation 

Reality 

Its not easy, its much easier to prescribe an architecture to people and have them adapt than to adapt architecture to the people. The process is slow and incremental, but I think trying to understand people and community should be that way. In the show, character Leslie Knope best illustrates this in her ability to persevere even though each step forward is incredibly small when comparing it to the big picture. In other words, always channel your inner Leslie Knope when trying to engage the community with architecture.