Urban Organicism
Downtown Seneca Slowly Revitalizing Itself
“The practices of everyday urbanism should inevitably lead to social change, not via abstract political ideologies imposed from outside, but instead through specific corners that arise from the lived experience of different individuals and groups in the city.” -Margaret Crawford
Everyday Urbanism looks at cities through an almost Darwinian lens, where the healthiest change occurs steadily and naturally over time. Implementing dramatic and sweeping policies or large scale design projects presents a lot of risk to a community where such sudden changes can have immediate and long term effects. Architects, community planners, and developers have the responsibility to make these careful considerations especially in vulnerable communities where gentrification and displacement are very possible outcomes.
It may be best to err on the side of not interfering as much as we can. Allowing the community to grow on its own, provide what we can as architects to meet their needs as they come along and not try to invent any artificial needs, problems, or solutions. If there are problems occurring in a community it should be given the chance to course correct on its own before anybody does anything crazy to try and fix it.
Thats a great point, too often the city gets involved to "transform" an area and its often to the detriment of those who live there already. I do think that a lot has to do with zoning regulation and rules in place, which would require some interaction from the city
ReplyDeleteI think the comparison to the darwinian component is intriguing. I will counter and say that by stating that it feels like we are giving our selves a god status that looks down upon society and stretches and pulls it as we see fit
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