The art of listening, who are you really designing for?

    I really jived with these set of readings after I got past the architectural fluff that disguised the author's true intention. I really loved the idea of an architect completely plugging in to a community and making the design process a two way street. Often times you see a firm come in to a community and drop this design in a town meeting and it creates discourse within the community. The members of this area feel as if they weren't even considered. The people that live there immediately feel negatively to that project because they haven't been considered or asked what they think. I say these things after experiencing a few projects with my time as the CRDC graduate assistant where I helped design and run collaborative design charrettes where the entire intention was to actively record the thoughts and feelings of the community. I acknowledge that these types of projects are incredibly fragile and often times require more attention from the designer. However, I would argue that those reasons are what makes these projects so special to me. After you get acquainted with a community, you begin talking on a regular basis, and people get comfortable with you, that is where the investment happens. 

   

CEDC + CRDC Design Charette 

On location in Haiti Planning Meeting

    

    Here are a couple of examples of the charrettes that Dustin and I ran as a way of visually recording the act of listening to the Clemson Engineers for Developing Countries (CEDC) and the Haitian community that the comprehensive studio of 2019 began designing for. These students, fueled by these suggestions from the community and creative inquiry, were able to produce very successful projects that helped begin fundraising for the community center in Cange, Haiti to be built. This facility will be ran by the people of Cange with assistance from the CEDC until Clemson is no longer needed. These charrettes helped open my eyes to collaborative design and in turn has helped me form questions of my own when going to community meetings. This type of design is incredibly important and if done correctly will create a space that the community feels invested in. They will keep it up, volunteer their time, and it will become apart of the community fabric that binds them together. 

Pictured above : CEDC Haiti campus students share their thoughts on the project after spending a year in Haiti, working with the community on multiple projects including the Cange water system. Luckily we were able to record these experiences along with the community members of Cange for so very helpful insight into what exactly was needed within the community. 

    A few of us had the opportunity to spend a year in Charleston where these lessons also came into play with communities there. You could see it in the faces of the community that they were invested the second we responded to their critiques and suggestions with our designs. It only deepened the relationship between the A+CB program and the surrounding communities by actively listening to the community members and allowing the design process to be a collaborative environment. 

    

    To bring us back to the readings, the question "who are you designing for?" is often considered quickly and  then not revisited until after the project is done. I believe that this question should be constantly asked. How can we as architects help these communities that we design for? Through the act of active listening, can we create an environment where people feel apart of the design rather than feeling sidelined? I am offering more questions than answers here but I think this topic has really shaped how I approach design and my need to contribute to the community in a meaningful way. 

Until next time, 

H