Culture getting in the way of Participatory Design
In the lecture, we discussed how architecture can give the power back to the people through the design of their spaces. When thinking about how apartments could be designed to meet each users wants and needs, there were a few things that crossed my mind and I questioned why we do not implement this strategy in America. First off, communities like Maison Medical designed by Kroll are completely disorganized; there is no consistency in order or façade consistency. I personally did not find those complexes as something that was aesthetically beautiful, but what was amazing was how the culture and backgrounds of each family was celebrated through design. Today, when architects are designing complexes it is for a developer and they want the construction documents quick and cheap. Quick and cheap does not equate to designing each condo or apartment to the users need. Second, we live in a society where apartments are temporary. Unless you are living in a major city, apartments are the step before a house in the suburbs. Lastly, these apartments that are designed for one user will not work with the next people moving in. When people own a home, they can fix up the place to their liking, but this does not work with renting property because it is not yours. In Europe this design strategy may work in apartments because of their culture of living in apartments all their life, but American culture gets in the way of participatory design. In the end, we need to be designing where the user group is participating in design, I do not believe this strategy would work for housing like apartments in a society like America.
Mady, I was intrigued by your insight regarding the differences between the inherent levels of participatory design between American and European apartments based on differing socioeconomic factors. I think this could work in America if there were enough renters who were aware of and desire a certain participatory or flexibility aspect in the units themselves in their apartment search. Maybe in the near future this will be a feature users can "filter" results they see on web sites like Apartments.com or Zillow.
ReplyDeleteHey Michael! Your take on participatory design as it applies to apartments in America is really interesting. I totally agree that not everything that is achieved in Europe is completely applicable to the American society. Therefore, I think the overarching question is how do we implement participatory design that is relevant to American Housing? I also agree that the context of the developer only wanting fast and cheap design is a road block to this effort, so how can we as designers bypass this? Maybe it means that participatory design doesn't happen at the physical but the mental parts of the design? Meaning, the designer doesn't impose their predetermined activity and programming into a space but allow the users to determine this/allowing for fluidity of programming.
ReplyDeleteIt is not abnormal for developers to take units from one project and ask the units to reuse them in another project to quicken the design and building process for the sole purpose of saving money and time, eliminating participatory design. One must ask if these units still work in the new context and new user?
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