Coexistent Architecture
Robert Park wrote, "man's most consistent and on the whole, his most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in more after his heart's desire. But, if the city is the world which man created, it is the world in which he is henceforth condemned to live...in making the city man has remade himself."
Architecture has an ethical obligation to not only design in a way that takes into account nature and sustainability, but also in a way allows people to thrive and to live. What would a city be without people? Whenever I visit a new city I always look at the buildings first of course, as an architect I feel like it is our second nature to look at architecture, but I look at the people second. I observe. How are people using the city? Their city. I feel that this helps me understand architecture in a different way when I see how people are actually using spaces and making them their own. Architecture is okay with being in the background when it is filled with people and social spaces, and I believe that is what the core of city living is.
If we are "condemned to live" in a manmade city, we have to make architecture coexist with humanity.
Kimani, I love this sentiment because it is so simple and so painfully obvious on the surface. I think where this breaks down in discourse is people like you and I will place a big emphasis on equity in architecture. Equity is inherently environmentally sustainable as it looks at who bears the consequences of climate change. If we want to design cities and architecture around people in a way that facilitates coexistence with humanity, I think equity is a good starting point.
ReplyDeleteI have often done the same as you and first looked at architecture instead of how it is being used by the public. In order for architecture to truly coexist with everything in the world, we must understand how we can integrate architecture into the lives of people and nature, instead of forcing the two to coexist with architecture.
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