Where Is the Social Project?

摘要

In the last decade, a range of participatory and activist practices have emerged as the self-proclaimed inheritors of architecture's social project From Architecture for Humanity's aid in poor and disaster-stricken regions to temporary urban interventions, many of these initiatives transcend conventional definitions of architecture.1 A new generation of architects, designers, and urbanists are turning down office jobs to build shelters in Burma, reclaim the streets of Sevilla, guerrilla-garden in London, or study the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Privileging activism, informality, and alterity over what is perceived as a dominant architectural culture of tired formalism and celebrity obsessions, such practices expand design from the manipulation of form and material to the development of procedures and the creation of models of engagement.