Studio Philosophy

"My idea of the architect as a coordinator — whose business it is to unify the various formal, technical, social and economic problems that arise in connection with building — inevitably led me on step by step from the study of the function of the house to that of the street; from the street to the town; and finally to the still vaster implications of regional and national planning. I believe that the New Architecture is destined to dominate a far more comprehensive sphere than building means today; and that from the investigation of its details we shall advance towards an ever-wider and profounder conception of design as one great cognate whole."

-Walter Gropius | The New Architecture and the Bauhaus, 1935

Over the years, architecture as a discipline has generally relied on a few basic premises. One is that the architect is the master facilitator, commanding all elements of architectural production. We assume that to release the architect’s hegemonic grip over the aesthetic product will translate to a loss of control over the process itself. And therefore, architecture has sought to fortify the discipline from those its serving, strengthening the division between architecture and society. 

Yet within the field of architecture, there is a new faction emerging - architectures of social engagement. Accelerated by recent shows at MoMA and Cooper Hewitt, and with ever-more-popular organizations and programs such as Architecture for Humanity and Auburn University’s Rural Studio, this burgeoning theme (at least from our vantage point in the United States) puts forth an alternative form of architectural output that thrives on embedded engagement with under-served communities. Is this praxis of architectural production different than other practices? At least one aspect is distinct: with socially-engaged architecture, educational outreach becomes an integral component to the architectural product. The architect’s dominance over aesthetic judgement can remain in tact while also allowing for dissemination of information, and ultimately, knowledge.

Many systems and infrastructures shape the flows of society - from the economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental. The stoplight timing mechanisms, cellphone frequencies, timber-sizing, and fire-code regulations all are designed systems. Re-conceiving of the systems at work in any design can achieve a ‘total REdesign.’ New architectures of social engagement ultimately require a redesign of the systems around their practices in order to ‘get it right.’ Good designers design the building blocks of their structures, the great ones design the processes to make those blocks, and the pedagogy of their new work forces. 

Looking to improve the educational opportunities in the Boston Region, Youthbuild, an international training organization for young people, has hired you to conceive of a construction training center. How does education operationalize the program of a vocational school for a communitiy-in-need? David Harvey’s “Spaces of Insurgency” asserts the right for laborers to “have a strong voice in the choice of what to produce and how to produce it.” But then what is the role of the architect? Can we still have aesthetic authority and autonomy as the architectural author? 


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