Developers, Architects, Users, Oh My!
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| 100 sqft Apartment in NYC: $950/month |
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| UC Santa Barbara Housing Proposal |
Who should be designing housing: the developers, architects, or users? Should architects focus on commercial buildings and leave the residential design to the developers? Or the users? Does the market even try to meet user needs or just continuously erect more and more housing? Is this feeding into or solving the housing crisis?
The distinction between architects, developers, and their role when designing user-centered housing has a long history, most notably dating to John Habraken's book "Supports: An Alternative to Mass Housing" in 1961. He dives into the idea that housing should be built to solve a problem, but of the various designers involved, many don't understand the experiences of the users. This can be a result of people designing buildings that they have no knowledge of or that don't directly impact them. He directly states how it is impossible to have any disconnect between the dweller and the dwelling.
I believe that the points made by Habraken still ring true sixty-two years later. There is still a lingering issue when designing for user needs, rather than just designing for a hurried schedule and a conservative budget. Especially with the housing shortage, these issues are more evident for residents. Even landlords will rent unliveable spaces out to desperate tenants for astronomical prices with little to no remorse. OR we could even talk about the UC Santa Barbara housing proposal with ZERO windows- using college students as an experiment with all the billionaire money rather than just building a beneficial, efficient, functional space to improve student productivity and well-being.
Great blog post, Kelsey. I believe that is it shocking that the UC Santa Barbara dorm room is actually being built. It seems like if anything happened in that building, it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. Also, if a building doesn't meet basic code, like having a window in a bedroom, it shouldn't allowed to be built.
ReplyDeleteKelsey I appreciate the fact that you brought up the schedule and budget. I. think this is an error where things like community and friendly user spaces are sacrificed at the cost of others. There is always a way to negotiate and solve the monetary issues.
ReplyDeleteAs you stated, Kelsey, when designing housing, architects, developers, and users are involved in the process. The real question relates to the role, and power, that each of these user groups have. Your reference to the dorm at UC Santa Barbara designed with no windows is an accurate assessment of the power clients have today.
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