Community Is a Practice
<p>The fact that architecture is a social art is a well known truism in the field. But what are the mechanisms of the relationship between architecture and society at large? One answer comes in the way architects engage the question of community. In the twentieth century United States, the role of architecture in building stronger and more democratic communities has often sat in tension with the fields’ close dependency on market forces. Issue 6 explores how architects’ definitions of community have changed during this period, pointing out in particular a shift from approaches to community based on territorial boundaries to those focused instead on the design of processes. A series of episodes document significant moments in the ideation of community as practice, animated by interviews, found audio, oral histories and historical analysis. They demonstrate that when architects engage communities, this practice is complicated by designers’ institutional allegiances and the professional knowledge these institutions reproduce.</p>
Producer: Anna Goodman, Curt Gambetta, Susanne Cowan, Molly Esteve
Issue Editor: Anna Goodman
Editors: Joseph Bedford, Curt Gambetta
Announcer: Trudy Watt
Contributors: Anna Goodman, Molly Esteve, Jeff Hou, Maria Sykes, Susanne Cowan, Jah Elyse Sayers, Carl Anthony, Anthony Raynsford
Production Assistant: Ethan Curtis
Part of: Attention