This Disillusionment of Community in Architecture.

     

    "Strategy determines how space is organized. Tactics determine how it is used." - Dr. David Franco

    Community as a strategy in architecture is an illusion without the tactics that uphold the ideology. In contemporary architecture, "community, social justice, design for the people, and advocation" are all buzzwords used in the discourse as a trojan horse to invade spaces and alter the ideology of place. These buzzwords are supererogatory in discourse particularly when a designer is living the tactic they are espousing to uphold. This strategy may be well-meaning and have positive intentions but it is subject to the agendas of people and the nuances of identity. The problem is rooted in the hyperbole of what architectural design can "do". Architectural thinking however seems like a potential antidote. Architectural design education seems to currently concern itself with faith in the ideology of community without the work to support this actually means. Simply put, it is impossible to implement a strategy of community without "living" the idea of community with every breath, conversation, penstroke, thought. Anything else is a superfluous tactic designed to allow the imposing of ideas into communities to which one only has a tangential relationship.  The tactic is particularly insidious because ideas of community build are designed to generate a trusting relationship, only to ignore circumstances that are not ideal or even displace communities that are underserved, marginalized, etc. 

    Is it even possible to assist in the development/execution of a community strategy of which one is not a deeply invested member?

    Architectural thinking, and therefore the discourse, seems to concern itself with the experimentation of ideas. While ideas can fail or evolve, when positioned as a tactic, there is an honesty of intent. Those same ideas positioned as strategies are doomed to failure even if the initial implementation is seen as successful. So it would seem that SOAs are duty-bound to demonstrate the difference through tactics as opposed to creating irrelevant discourse about the way in which things "should be". Creation and implementation of a strategy without deep investment into a community, and complete personal investment, is a pink lie. And it is a pink lie that no one has to tell. Honest discourse about efforts, intentions, agendas, and ideas is the remedy to colonization veiled as "community".

TL:DR

Strategies that are not lived through tactics are a lie.