Apparatus X: Activating the Architectural Activist
Open Access
- Author:
- Wertman, Aaron Charles
- Graduate Program:
- Architecture
- Degree:
- Master of Architecture
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- May 08, 2015
- Committee Members:
- Marcus Steven Shaffer, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
James Theodore Kalsbeek, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Darla V Lindberg, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Activist Architect
Architectural Activism
Social Capital
participatory design
itinerant architect
embodied knowledge - Abstract:
- Activism has been tied to architecture in the modern era since the socio-political upheaval of the 1960s. Today, the itinerant activist architect has emerged as an alternative to office-bound practice. Typically defined as one who uses design as a tool for political change, immediate response, and/or in reaction to man-made or natural catastrophe, an activist architect can be more simply described as one who takes architectural practice with him/her, commits to a community, and engages with that community’s building needs. While it is still essential for the activist architect to possess formal design skills, knowledge of design process and craft, be well practiced in communicating ideas, and to promote ethics, safety, and responsibility, they must also cultivate knowledge and skills gained through informal experience – immersion in community, collaborative communication, thriftiness and inventiveness, trust-building. What, in addition to building, drawing, design, craft knowledge, and experience, enables the activist arch to engage in a meaningful way? The activist architect must be a facilitator, enhancing the inherent desire in every community to create a built environment reflective of their values and needs. Despite the rise of student interest in humanitarianism and social consciousness, and the profession’s promotion and commendations of the “citizen architect,” the formal curriculum of today’s architectural education system (NAAB-centric) does little to educate or prepare students to be activists. If the activist architect is created through the combination of informal experience, immersion, compassion, sympathy, understanding, holistic thinking, proper application of skills, resourcefulness, politics, and formal training, how does one prepare for those things educationally? Furthermore, how does formal and informal knowledge, professional training, and experience get to communities in need in order to facilitate change? Apparatus X, the design/build project informed by this thesis, is both an educational preparation and a response to the needs of an itinerant activist architect. It is a self-sufficient, mobile design/construction studio designed to serve the essentials of architectural activism – responsiveness, tools/knowledge transmission, and the establishment of relationships where knowledge sharing, design-as-dialog, and community engagement occur. This unit becomes part of the community, placing the activist architect exactly where they need to be in order to commune with their neighbors and collaborators. By empowering the autonomous re-development of a community through self-progressive architectural activism, the rebuilding process and the architect’s role changes. It evolves from that of a removed designer to an engaged activist and community member. Three physical spaces designed into the mobile unit are critical to facilitating re-building efforts: tooling workshop, design studio, and relatable space open to public. In these spaces within the mobile unit, tangible and intangible deliverables are brought into the community: tools, knowledge, and empowerment through reciprocal re-building. With a prepared physical presence, the activist architect and his/her community can engage in design activities and tasks together – WITH the community rather than FOR the community. In this way, there is reciprocity in learning that provides local knowledge and direct feedback to the activist architect, creating an environment of effective design and engagement for the betterment of communities and individuals in need. For me, as a student of architecture and a person who has been involved in community re-building, Apparatus X is a tool of anticipation – a tool designed for engagement; a tool prepared to address unknown factors that shape re-building efforts – and so I go forth, armed with this physical manifestation of architectural activism, prepared to facilitate change.