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spontaneous_architecture // bintWTD_Petra

As designers, we often find ourselves caught in this obsession, illusion, of complete control, where every angle of a design is under perfect consideration according to prescribed set of rules.  We are convinced that is what separates the higher mindedness of design from the foolishness of art. Here I propose thinking of looking at architecture from a different angle. 

Instead of thinking of architecture as a final piece of art think about it as a canvas onto which people are going to shape their lives.  Architecture is the infrastructure of life, within which everything is free to move, adapt and change. An architect is not a single person with a vision of what is right, and what is right in architecture is not absolute, but a collaboration of many inspired individuals overlaying their visions in a collaborative community.

We need more architects. We need more people modifying and creating environments that perform and inspire.

In that sense I find something utterly beautiful in the formation of dense slums. This hands-on growth out of need, with a close relationship with a material, and highly conditioned by scale. They look human, like the forts we built out of found objects as kids. The growth of these slums bears resemblance to the organic growth of old cities, excluding the factor of intense poverty. Cities growing according to need, rather than growing according to statistical forecasts based on abstract equations that dictate ideal space requirements, people designed using the scale of their own bodies. It somehow makes more sense; cities are for people to live in, and for anyone in this community to pour their creativity into.

Just take a look at: [favela_rio] [amman_jordan] [zurich_switzerland]

The making of structures and of cities has become a very disconnected process. Very little of it is practiced whole-heartedly; instead it is practiced according to codes, regulations, minimum requirements, and to meet deadlines and budgets. It is obvious the fun is sucked out of the process when you look at most buildings in cities everywhere.

A property is valued by its square footage, a property is built according to potential revenue, built by some developer, and then end users are (usually) cheated from a design that truly suits their needs. Designers are cheated from truly designing. We are all cheated out of fun.

Imagine a design process that sees beauty in mistakes and seeks opportunity in everything. A design that is heavily based on imagination and fully driven and supported to apply and experiment its visions. Imagine a city that is a canvas of experimentation. 

There are so many ideas to explore in the world, and it would be so enriching to see a city truly invest into realizing these ideas, and not for the purpose of advancing its self image, but to advance its society as a whole. It is a city that has the right to organically grow, without the end product of this growth to ever be known, because there is no end to it, and because every space no matter how small or insignificant is laden with opportunity.

The term dead space is derogatory in the world of architecture, it is a space with no purpose, left over and under-designed, but that left-over space has all the potential in the world to be the most interesting space in a city. Every corner of that city should be allowed the luxury of being designed, and redesigned, where through the work you could see the layers of different designers, each with an agenda, the core of which is to create a space that performs.

This obviously is a regulators biggest fear. Regulations gave birth to neat cities, wide roads, and more parking. All are absolutely void of ownership, and are very untouchable. However, these regulations are a complex web of codes and laws that are causing the emergence of soul-less boring cities. Instead of using this complex web of rules to create plain cities, we should simplify the rules to allow the growth of inspirational complex cities. If these rules are guidelines that can be malleable and negotiated, then a mindset of the impossibility to do anything that isn’t customary, could hopefully be abolished.

A walk through the city should be thrilling with spaces that hold messages beyond their function. A multilayered design experiment in which everyone is welcome to participate, even with only a provoked thought.

“Architecture is a social act and the material theater of human activity.” -Spiro Kostof

Follow @bonpetra


Awesome projects worth checking out:

http://www.smart-urban-stage.com/amsterdam/ideas/jeroen-koolhaas-dre-uhrahn-favel-painting/

http://elitechoice.org/2008/05/12/alleys-abode-8-ft-wide-4-story-home/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664032/the-second-phase-of-nycs-high-line-is-even-better-than-the-first-slideshow#3

http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=69

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/alsop/sharp_center/sharp_center.html

 

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