An Urban Recipe

We know that cities and politics can never really be separated. So, inherently, architecture can never be entirely separated from politics. In the Rebel Architecture documentary following Guerilla Architect, Santiago Cirugeda, many ideas were explored about using architecture as a solution to social issues. His office, Urban Recipes, operates on the edge of the law. They produce architectural work that skirts around legalities and provides cost-effective solutions to social groups in Spain. Santiago says that “people tell [him his] architecture is ugly. Interesting–but ugly.” However, what Santiago is doing is beyond the typical architect's role. Later in the video, it’s stated that “we’re seeing a shift in the traditional role of what an architect does. Normally it’s more top-down, but here everyone gets involved.” Is this type of architectural approach a part of civil protest? Or is it how architecture should start to define itself? Should architecture re-define itself to put people before icons? And to what extent?