The Residue of Dominant Economic Forces
I think one of the greatest things about being a designer is being able to live and dream in the world of possibilities. School, in some ways, has provided us with unconstrained design possibilities, rarely have we been asked to design with scarcity or austerity in mind. This gives way to a rather depressing reality given in the reading Scarcity contra Austerity.
“Caught between the diminished architecture of the 99% and the austere architecture of the 1%, we are left helpless; architecture is once again simply a kind of after-effect -- the residue of dominant economic forces.”
Our profession has deep ties in the economy and capitalism when the market is booming, work is good, firms get larger, and opportunities seem endless. When these things slow, clients want the same level of work but for less money, architects undercut one another in attempts to land the job and the whole profession suffers.
I feel that as designers and architects we don't stand up nearly enough to these pressures as we fear that we could lose business relations or projects, you never want to be known as the "difficult firm."
Aside from all this, being tied to capitalism and the economy has also been the impetus for a lack of workforce housing, non-profit work, and other projects that see nearly the same returns as market-rate apartments and commercial projects. To me, this is a missed opportunity because the smaller budget projects can be more rewarding with more opportunities to embrace scarcity as we have seen in the lectures.
A lack of affordable housing, I feel, is one of the biggest issues facing many countries and relates back to the topic of spatial justice. Large portions of the population in the United States are one missed paycheck away from starvation or houselessness (another topic). In the United States, housing is treated as a privilege and not a right, therefore people on the streets are viewed as lazy. The problem is once you no longer have housing, can no longer play the game, finding a job gets harder, no address no ID no job and the cycle goes on. Affordable housing is funded through governments, not usually developer-driven and we are at a crossroads of private interests and collective needs.
Architects and Designers are often at the front lines of advocacy for affordable housing, though this problem is just as much a political issue as it is a design issue.
“Caught between the diminished architecture of the 99% and the austere architecture of the 1%, we are left helpless; architecture is once again simply a kind of after-effect -- the residue of dominant economic forces.”
Our profession has deep ties in the economy and capitalism when the market is booming, work is good, firms get larger, and opportunities seem endless. When these things slow, clients want the same level of work but for less money, architects undercut one another in attempts to land the job and the whole profession suffers.
Aside from all this, being tied to capitalism and the economy has also been the impetus for a lack of workforce housing, non-profit work, and other projects that see nearly the same returns as market-rate apartments and commercial projects. To me, this is a missed opportunity because the smaller budget projects can be more rewarding with more opportunities to embrace scarcity as we have seen in the lectures.
A lack of affordable housing, I feel, is one of the biggest issues facing many countries and relates back to the topic of spatial justice. Large portions of the population in the United States are one missed paycheck away from starvation or houselessness (another topic). In the United States, housing is treated as a privilege and not a right, therefore people on the streets are viewed as lazy. The problem is once you no longer have housing, can no longer play the game, finding a job gets harder, no address no ID no job and the cycle goes on. Affordable housing is funded through governments, not usually developer-driven and we are at a crossroads of private interests and collective needs.
Architects and Designers are often at the front lines of advocacy for affordable housing, though this problem is just as much a political issue as it is a design issue.
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