by: Rachel Schauer
Event: Social Housing and the Social Contract
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.30.07
Speakers: Bruce Becker, AIA — Becker+Becker; Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani — The Graduate Center, CUNY & UC Berkeley; Dr. Barbara Lane — Growth and Structure of Cities, Bryn Mawr College; Dr. Susan Saegert — The Graduate Center, CUNY and Director, Center for Human Environments
Moderator: Susan Szenasy — Metropolis
Introduction: Joan Blumenfeld, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP, AIANY President
Sponsors: Center for Human Environments, The Graduate Center, CUNY; in partnership with AIANY Housing Committee
Speakers call to revive and revise the social contract for architects.
Courtesy Google Earth
As the backdrop to our daily lives, housing design in particular plays a significant role in affecting how people live and develop. But architecture is not the only driving force behind the success of a society’s affordable housing; it falls within a systemic framework that is at once complex and dynamic. For this reason, taking part in the social contract for architects can mean an extra challenge that goes above and beyond their typical call of duty.
Frequently, especially in affordable housing design, attention to details is sacrificed for the sake of the bigger picture. Light, air, safety, and communal space are just a few key elements in housing that can enrich the inhabitants’ quality of life regardless of income, but are often neglected for financial reasons. Yet, architectural refinement and quality play a vital role in the social contract because they give many occupants a sense of pride in where they live and allow them to create their own sense of home.
While it may be important, design is only part of a larger equation for success; financial and managerial problems can make or break any well-designed affordable housing project. Actively taking part in the social contract, however, may provide the key for architects to make their role practically indispensable. By learning how to balance funding, design, and management issues, architects can help to create truly sustainable projects in which the initial investment may be more costly, but the long-term savings pay off economically, socially, and environmentally.
Nevertheless, after all is said and done, can architects really do anything if they lack control over a project’s parameters, which are typically controlled by the client? Though the suggestions, such as proposing additional funding strategies to clients, collaborating to encourage a more well-rounded mission, and not allowing the client to fully dictate the program, seem somewhat vague, the overall message is clear: architects need to take more social responsibility. The social contract is nothing new, but in a time when public life and concepts of a collective “us” seem to be slipping away, it desperately needs to be revived and revised. Architects, as creative visionaries, may just be the people to resuscitate.
Rachel Schauer is concentrating her studies on architecture and communications at New York University Gallatin School. She also is e-OCULUS’ graphic designer.