Designing for Adaptation

 Going back briefly to a topic from previous weeks, I wanted to touch on Alejandro Aravena’s social housing project in Chile one more time. I think the approach to leaving space for future design within his buildings is a very interesting concept. Most of the time I think architects design with the intent of finishing the build and don’t necessarily think about expansion or explicitly plan for drastic change in the design of their buildings.

Not to go back on my tangent about the Dominican Republic… but this was also something we encountered when touring around the city. I was wondering why there were so many buildings with rebar still sticking up out of buildings and that kind of thing. A lot of the buildings looked run down and unfinished, but they explained, like Franco did, that it is not a financial issue, like running out of money, but rather just anticipating expansion. I guess my mind just works in a different way…I would build the building to whatever extent I felt complete and then in the future I would just expand off of that or build something new? I don’t know just the idea of intentionally designing something that is, and looks, unfinished is hard to wrap my head around. But, with that being said, Aravena did achieve this in an elegant way, where it wasn’t an eyesore almost… Anyways this idea of building with the future in mind, or expecting adaptation is an interesting charge I think architects should try to undertake more often.