Did you know that one of the leaders of the 9/11 World trade center Attack was an architect? Mohammed Atta, who crashed the first plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, had degrees in architecture and urban planning. He considered the construction of high-rises in Egyptian cities such as Cairo and other ancient Middle Eastern cities a shameless embrace of the Western Culture that would destroy their character. To what degree did his consideration affect his actions prior to and on 9/11 is not a question the article tries to answer but rather intrigued thoughts behind how much architecture changes our perspectives and perception of the world and hence changes us.
Throughout history, architecture has always stood as a representation of societal values and norms. We learn about people by the spaces they inhabit or inhabited. We also learn a great deal about architecture’s influence on people by carefully studying the built environment, psychology, and the environment itself but before architecture education, no one truly understands the value of spaces and why they are designed in particular ways. One starts to notice a change in how he or she perceives differently the spaces they are associated with daily from the first year of undergraduate studies and as one polishes their understanding of project design’s “big idea” or concepts as widely known, one gets to understand the true impact of architecture on people’s life which is at its base is to create shelter and at its peak, more than just buildings. It stands as a measure of how we see ourselves as architecture tells a very important story about one’s place in the world, and the world around us and tries to understand the intricate relationship between the two.
More than just shelter making
With architecture drawing its knowledge and processes from diverse sources of the sciences, arts, and humanities, it uniquely positions those associated with design studios be it professional practice or those studying it at a position where they are constantly questioning everyday situations in the search for the better. Indeed architecture is not just about what we create but rather how we think of current issues affecting us and how best to respond to them. It is a process that is less concerned with buildings’ physical properties, functionality, or aesthetics and more concerned with how our buildings respond to current societal needs, ever-growing social class divides, climate change, humanitarian needs, and the politics of the spaces that we inhabit. The architect, therefore, through the design of buildings and design thinking can provide not only shelter and human needs, but also, enrich our daily lives.
A fine example of an architect being more than a shelter maker is non-other than architect Francis kere the 2022 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize whose pioneering approach to design and sustainable modes of construction come from a personal commitment to serve the community he grew up in and his believe in the transformative potential of the beauty. Having studied in a small, poorly ventilated classroom with over 150 other children, he set out to build the first primary school in his home village of Gando before even finishing his degree in Germany. After eventually managing to convince his community to build the school out of clay (an abundant resource that his people have used for centuries) rather than glass and concrete they now deemed materials of progress and development, Kere started the project without the means of employing western construction techniques but rather resorting to the intuitive knowledge and building traditions of his people. However, his understanding of both cultures aided him in making the first manifestation of his architectural philosophy in which he argues that African architecture needs to develop its own identity far from that of the West.
Having known the living conditions of his people as that without basic services such as electricity, and how the monsoon winds affected the clay compounds, he used a mixture of clay and 8% cement in making the bricks to make them resistant to the rains and for them to be able to be hand-pressed since there was no electricity and burning the bricks wasn’t an option as the area lacked enough trees. For the roof, Kéré came up with a clever idea consisting of two layers: a massive brick ceiling, and a lightweight metal roof that is held up by cheap rebar to allow air to flow in between.
By actively engaging the most capable people from his village in this project, he included them in the construction process by teaching them how to press bricks, lay foundations weld steel for roofs and furniture, finish works such as painting, and overall cement the spirit of teamwork for collective survival. Recognizing the need to contextualize how we approach everyday problems is a major part of finding long-lasting solutions to these challenges.
“… I hope that I was able to make my community proud.” Francis Kere
There is no doubt that one man can change the lives of many as Francis Kere’s example has elaborated and so in conclusion just as we started with a question we end with one: How has architecture changed you?
Reference:
https://artificialorder.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/an-emancipatory-practice-of-architecture/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mohammed-Atta
https://www.routledge.com/blog/article/what-do-architects-do-if-not-design-buildings#
https://www.kerearchitecture.com
https://identitecture.blog/2021/05/22/kere/
