"It takes a village!"....Or rather, it used to.
Why has the cliché "It takes a village to raise a child!" been such a commonly heard phrase in our lifetime? Raising a child takes more than the parents, if done right, but I'm not so sure that this idea stands in America anymore. But I bet it's true for the 80% or so of the world population that still lives in small villages not too much unlike the one shown above.
Okay, Syd, so what does this have to do with architecture??.... I'm getting there.
First, I was struck by the description of Venturi's writing in Frampton's Towards a Critical Architecture where Venturi asserts that "Americans do not need piazzas, since they should be at home watching television." As architecture students, that sentence frightens our architectural brains YET this is exactly what the majority of us do at the end of a long day of class because this is what our whole, individualistic society does... tell me I'm wrong or at least invite me to your piazza if I'm not.
Secondly, this part of the critical regionalism argument reminded me of a new book I'm reading called, "Find Your People" by Jennie Allen in which she speaks on the loneliness that we all experience and the strategies and importance of true friendship and community. Allen's research for the book led her to nothing other than... you guessed it, VILLAGES. The kind that are no more than 25-50 people where every adult acts as elders, parents, aunties and uncles to every village kid. The kind where the huts don't have locks and doors and electricity is rare. The kind where you borrow from your neighbor instead of buying everything on Amazon. What's interesting about the above photo is how these people crafted their village with their huts facing each other creating shared common spaces... and I doubt they had an architect tell them they should do it. It's just how they live. The village is the opposite of the individualistic culture that we have in American no matter if you live in an Urban city apartment or a suburban neighborhood. We've lost the value of small, intentional villages where the space in between was THE most natural, important and sacred space they had.
I doubt many architects have used a remote village in Africa as their precedent for how communities around the world might operate, but what if we did? Maybe what should be true is that "it takes a village to raise an architect."
Sydney, your post made me laugh and sad for American society at the same time. We do not want piazzas, we want to shut our front doors and take naps and watch tv when we get home. We aren't going over to the neighbor's house to bond and be together. Another difference which is unfortunately the sad reality is that we have advanced technologically over a lot of these third world villages spoken of. We have become lazier and more lonely than the rest of society because technology allows us to be.
ReplyDeleteYour post reminds me about Metaverse. Even though Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of this virtual world would become more and more tactile as if people are interacting in real life. But to a certain point though. Imaging an already lonely experience that we are creating in America become even more lonely when people only interact via virtual means. Every time I listen to an interview about Metaverse, in my head is the images from a Amazon Prime series “Upload.” It is so sad.
ReplyDeleteTo Syd, From Lyd:
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how you noted that a remote village in Africa (with definitely no architectural interference) oftentimes has more of a community and natural way of life than cities that are "urban planned" for years. We should take note of the way of life of cultures all across the world instead of trying to impose our self righteous goals in the name of community.
If I had a piazza, I would invite you ;)