Social Architecture

This paper introduces the PHP (People’s Housing Process) approach to housing provision in South-Africa as a noteworthy third way that allows housing provision for the urban poor. In this contribution we will illustrate how, in an assisted approach of self-help housing, the government can play an important role in safeguarding the production of homes rather than merely providing dwellings. In doing so taking into account the more intangible and symbolic meaning of the house and home, which we argue are a central factor for a sustainable housing strategy.

This assisted self-help housing scheme was approved in 1998 and was inspired by the work of homeless people’s federation (SAHPF) and saving and housing schemes from around the globe. The further development of the scheme has been a challenging process but we argue that the PHP programme deserves more attention as a housing provision mechanism. Additionally, one of the strengths of the PHP approach is its applicability in a wider area of project types, from township upgrading to hostel redevelopment projects, and illustrated in this contribution by introducing the hostel redevelopment poject Ilinge Labahlali in Cape Town.

In what follows, the PHP approach is introduced, and the increasing interest of the government illustrated. Then, using two case studies, the importance of the assistance of government and NGOs is elaborated upon. In conclusion the challenges that still need to be met are highlighted.

In the context of ongoing economic and environmental crises, “social architecture” has gained traction as a description of those practices that seek to challenge the dominant professional model of capital-intensive, client-dependent architectural production. Approaching “social architecture” as a representation that contains crucial assumptions both about mainstream architectural practice and disparate strategies for its rejection, this paper draws on recent critical social science literature to analyse fieldwork with the Rural Studio, a design-build program in Alabama, USA. Exploring different understandings of “social architecture”—including as expressed by students, teachers, clients and community members—we suggest that the category is, in practice contexts, replete with tensions, rejections and uncertainties; coherence of intention or outcome can certainly not be assumed when architects attempt to deal with contradictions and crises emerging from other parts of capitalist society.

This practical, hands on introduction guides you through the basics of undertaking research in day-to-day architectural practice helping you to exploit the growing opportunities on offer. It explores how developing a research specialism can improve the quality of your projects, help to define your brand and generate new channels of revenue with innovative services for clients.

The text is divided into four sections focussing on different types of Architecture Research Practice; commercial, cultural, social and technology. Each section includes a series of inspiring case studies written by practitioners themselves on the way in which research benefits their business as well as an essay by an expert which sets these projects in their methodological context.  In this way the book highlights the broad spectrum of research being undertaken and the practical implications for the practice and their projects.

This is designed for architects and practices who want to develop a clear specialism that adds brand value and will enable them to access new funding streams as well as students of architecture who are getting to grips with architectural research.  This book will inspire cutting edge and innovative architectural practice that can clearly demonstrate its impact and value to non-architect clients.

Architects are reemphasizing their social mission and creating new forms of ‘social architecture,’ which has elsewhere been categorized as ‘activist,’ ‘humanitarian,’ ‘progressive,’ and ‘public interest.’ This present form of social architecture has roots in 1960s experimentation and has been a reaction to professionalization of the discipline and to stylistic postmodernism. It has paralleled environmental consciousness, and has become more relevant with rising inequality due to the global recession and continuing economic instability. The magnitude of social architecture’s development is impressive. A ‘social architectural’ program has been voted by the Deans of Architecture schools as the best education model in the US[1] and the work of socially engaged architects has been exhibited at MoMA in New York.[2] ‘Social architects receive national awards, teach studios in the Ivy League, and organize conferences to spread influence beyond their disciplinary boundaries.

                As new practices develop, controversies have surfaced regarding the architect’s ambiguous relationship to yielding disciplinary power. This paper will present (1) critical perspectives on social architecture, (2) ethnographic snapshots from the field, (3) a geopolitical perspective, and (4) a projectile where the ‘social’ is more radically localized alongside social movements like the Right to the City.

"“Repensar Bonpastor – a Competition of ideas for a participative and zero-eviction urban renewal of a popular neighbourhood in Barcelona”, promoted by the International Alliance of Inhabitants and organized by an independent group of technicians from Barcelona, received 45 proposals from all over the world. The
article explains how the local struggles of the neighbours of the “casas baratas de Bon Pastor” succeeded in gathering applied anthropology, international solidarity, oral history, social architecture, political activism, into a shared attempt to find a new way of “making the city”: where inhabitants are the leading actors of the transformations, and technicians (especially anthropologists) guarantee respect towards the meanings and value that the city represents to its inhabitants.

Keywords: urban renewal, public anthropology, social architecture, community
activism."

Migration has always been a major driver of urban transformation stimulating opportunities and challenges for cities and encouraging architectural and urban designers for taking a proactive and dynamic role in responding to the crisis. Enhancing these changes, and designing intercultural spaces for local communities, is a complex and urgent spatial challenge, that should be addressed by a multi-scalar approach aiming to integrate urban, architectural and public spaces. This paper illustrates a research-action resulting from a collective work developed on key urban spaces of the Al-bergheria neighbourhood of Palermo, where a design-led research based on a multi-scalar regeneration approach (urban, architectural and public space) can reframe the role of architecture and spatial practices as agents of social, intercultural inclusion and spatial reactivation at different scales.

La migrazione è da sempre una delle forze che orienta la trasformazione urbana stimo-lando opportunità e sfide per le città, che si modificano in base alle persone che ospi-tano, spingendo i progettisti ad assumere un ruolo pro-attivo nella risposta alla crisi. Valorizzare questi cambiamenti e progettare spazi interculturali per le comunità locali attraverso un approccio multi-scalare, che mira a integrare lo spazio urbano, quello ar-chitettonico e lo spazio pubblico, è una sfida spaziale complessa e urgente. Il presente saggio illustra quindi nuove letture e sedimenta significati per l'elaborazione di un lavo-ro collettivo su alcuni spazi urbani del quartiere Albergheria di Palermo, in cui la speri-mentazione del processo e l'innovazione del progetto multi-scalare s'intrecciano a più riprese per ricordarci che è possibile immaginare una città migliore rispettosa del pas-sato e impaziente del suo futuro.

Over the last twenty years, an approach has become increasingly important, which consists in giving all the protagonism to the place and, at the same time, in submitting the architectural object to unusual renounces. This could mean designing a camouflaged building not to disrupt a beautiful, yet fragile landscape; or an anonymous one that fits naturally into its context; or even doing almost nothing, if the intervention site does not seem to need great changes or modifications. Camouflage, anonymity and minimization are the strategies that contemporary architecture uses more often when circumstances require for the quietest and most silent intervention; each one of them constitutes a different way to address the needs of a place and to make the architectural object disappear. This paper analyses these strategies through case studies dated to the last two decades.

Design Studio Pedagogy: Horizons for the Future, Ashraf M. Salama and Nicholas Wilkinson (Editors), Review by Julia W. Robinson, 2007
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Design Studio Pedagogy: Horizons for the Future fills an important void. As pointed out by the editor/ authors Ashraf M Salama  &  Nicholas Wilkinson, in their introduction, it has been 15 years since a significant book on the subject of  teaching  design  studios  was  published. Divided into 6 sections, an introductory section and then 5 sections called chapters, the book covers theory of studio instruction,  theory  of student learning, thinking and decision-making, community  design  and  digital  technologies. Each  chapter/ section  begins  with  some commentary by the editors and is followed by articles written by a variety of authors, some of whom present a theoretical position on design instruction, but most of whom describe one or more examples of design studio instruction.

The  power  of  the  book  comes  from  its compilation of a large  number  of  examples of    studio    teaching,    each    written    with a  clear  explication  of  the  position  toward instruction  taken  by  the  instructor.  Because the pedagogical  intention  of  each  teacher is made explicit  and the methodology clearly laid out and illustrated, one is able to develop a  clear  vision  of  the  variety  of  approaches (design-build, urban design, the use of materials and details at the  architectural scale, design using computer/ virtual representation of the site,  installation  art,  service-based  learning), as  well  as  the  overall  pattern  of  similarity  in studio teaching from the  text (e.g. the use of student teams of individuals working together, and  strong  instructional  framework  given  by the instructor).

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Architectural Education, Design Pedagogy, Community Design, Social Architecture, Place Making

Short biography on Jemp Michel, architecte and artist. Member of the Luxembourg Secession Movement. Designer of furniture, of the Luxembourg pavillon at New York's Worldfare. Architect of the exibit halls in Luxembourg, of commercial buildings. One of the Luxembourg Modernism pioneers. 
Revue Technique Luxembourgeoise N°3/2016, Luxembourg, 2016, p. 64-67.
cf histoireurbaine.eu / bibliographie