The Modern-Day Robin Hood | Spanish Architect Style

            Santi Cirgeda, aka the Guerrilla Architect, is inspiring, more so than some of the architects I have studied in school. That may be a bold statement, appalling to some, but if you boil down architecture to its core, he may be the purest architect of them all. Architecture is a service, we have education, training, and skills that we can give to others in need. Yes its also a business (don’t think I am ignorant to that), but just like a lot of jobs, we have a trade that is almost nothing unless given outward. What Santi does is present his talent to those in need in such a raw setting. When the government in Spain wont provide and protect their people, Santi steps up to the plate, even if its illegal and leaves him at a place of owning almost nothing. He explains that he has been working 17 years, and only owns a second hand van and rents a room from a previous brothel. All the money he and his firm makes goes back into investing into the next project. He is the example of a modern-day Robin Hood, and because of that he is inspiring.   

            My two take away’s from this are: why hasn’t the Spanish government legalized self building, and why spend the resources to tear down what is self built when it is functioning and helping the community. I feel like the least they could do was leave the structures up for the community to benefit from, because it seems like the Guerrilla Architect is doing them a favor? If the Spanish Government is suffering from debt, why spend the money to destroy something that has been built? Granted this video is 7 years old now, so things may have changed, but this full circle that Santi has created seems to be doing a lot of good for both the community and also the unemployed. Call me crazy, but I don’t see the harm in what he was doing.