Recently we had a design pin-up which involved inviting both design as well as healthcare individuals from surrounding firms to come in and critic our beginning design concepts for our proposed healthcare campus. During these reviews I heard one particularly interesting piece of advise from Alexis Stumpf out of WJW Architects. We were discussing how familiarity was important to our projects and how developing new architecture in an area such as Lawndale was tricky due to its masses of old worn out industrial buildings and increased vacant lots. It was during this conversation that Alexis mentioned that putting a brand new contemporary building in the middle of the site might be an interesting feat. She went on to explain that while the building would be designed with the community in mind, it wouldn't necessarily fit in or encompass the community and its history. This really got me thinking about the popular term "gentrification" and how this term is flipping cities all over the U.S for the better? I question this because I don't know if we can say better?
If you look up the definition of the word "gentrification" you get the following:
"so it conforms to middle-class taste".... or better yet, "makes a person or activity more refined". This is a pretty big definition to unpack...
I didn't grow up in the suburbs. They seem like a nice place to live though, you know the middle class family with 2.5 kids and a dog kind of lifestyle, but not everyone should have to "conform" to that kind of lifestyle. What makes urban areas really interesting, especially the city of Chicago, are the different neighborhoods that make it up. If every single neighborhood "conformed to the middle class taste" the city wouldn't have any spunk or originality. It's the massive contrast of people, cultures, locations, and the history that goes with those areas that make up urban settings. This is why there is a war on gentrification right now. As a designer I realize that the idea of gentrification probably seemed really good on paper. Plop in a lot of really nice buildings, tear down the crappy old ones (hopefully the people in them either figure out a new place to live in the community or find a new one), let the individuals with money come in, and wa-la another rich and hopefully safe neighborhood. Unfortunately, a lot of ideas that seem great on paper don't really work that way in real life. The more foreign renovations or new construction that you "plop" into a place, the more you loose that neighborhoods spunk. Eventually all of the neighborhoods will look the same, with the same multi-family housing and retail. As designers we need to realize that we need to mesh with the area we are developing for, not undermine it.
I think that this is something that really speaks to our studio this semester due to its urban context. As a studio we really need to evaluate what kind of individuals live in this community as well as their needs. Just plopping a brand new building and housing to go along with it might not have a positive effect on the community. Will they trust it? Will they utilize it? I think these are all questions that we need to bring forward to our designs.
Photo Credit: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/05/building-way-to-hell-readers-tales-gentrification-around-world
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