Who are we Designing For?: Architecture and Its Significant Impact on Community and Place

 Who are we Designing For?: Architecture and Its Significant Impact on Community and Place

“Built environment, in all of its complexity, is created by people. Yet it is simply far too complex, too large, and too self-evident to be perceived as a single entity, an artifact like a chair, a car, a painting, or even a building.” - John Habraken

As designers, we often feel that in order to produce architectural spaces that are impactful, we must first fully understand the place in which it is being built. Ultimately though, this concept of place is not as black and white as it may seem. As mentioned by Habraken, a place is a complex web of ideas, people, things, and ultimately much more than just a collection of buildings.

Not only is this concept of place complex, it is also fluid and ever changing. As the people within a community evolve and change overtime, so does the place itself. These businesses, ideas, values and common goals within a particular place reflect those who make up the community at a moment in time, and ultimately a change within the people who make up a community will directly have an impact on the concept of “place”.

Just as people are complex, so are places. And the concept of a city runs much deeper than the building that physically inhabits a space.