Architecture as a Degree of Tokenism

 

When learning about Sherry Anstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation, it made me wonder where architecture sits on the ladder today. And a question of even more debate, where SHOULD architecture sit. On one end, the architect is manipulative, dictating how people move through spaces with placement of doors and stairs and corridors. They move through the building because we provided the paths.On the other end, is citizen control, when people build their own homes with no input from an architect. This is dangerous due to a lack of professional consulting on whether or not the building will stand properly.

In today's world of occupied spaces, architects are somewhere in the middle, maybe for the best. We are not total tyrants who tell the public how to live their lives in the spaces we create, but also not allowing the citizens to make their own office buildings. What we create are the shells and the ability to create themselves. More and more flexible spaces are being built, allowing for multiple building uses to inhabit structures. Thus, the architects can give the illusion of free control of spaces to the people, when in reality we have carefully designed them to constrain/allow what can be done in them.