“As an Architect, you design for the present with an awareness of the past for a future which is essentially unknown” – Norman Foster.
Architecture is one of the controversial topics in the world: Either when perceived as art or a problem-solving tool, it is shaping lives and generations. What people can see, analyze, and study now about ancient civilization is based on ruins – architecture and buildings. Shelters have evolved in time from natural to manmade making the core of architecture to be in continuous change. Those who lived in caves are sharing with the concrete generations nowadays a unique subconscious definition of architecture: A vital need!
How life could be without Architecture, how humanity will act and react without built environments, and how life will look like without buildings, are somehow harsh to respond to.
The Need for Architecture
For vital reasons, shelter is one of the physiological needs in Maslow’s Pyramid (McLeod, 2007). Tackling needs and architecture could not be achieved without referring to what the lockdown and COVID revealed in houses, offices buildings, and educational institutions. The importance of houses – architecture during the pandemic showed how people could be using one space for many purposes. For example, houses are reshaped in flexible and systematic matters not only to protect their residents; individuals started to accommodate the new flexible interior spaces focused on the main acts: Live, study, and work. What happened in dwellings, extended to involve workplaces, schools, and universities differently. When businesses and educational facilities are shifting to the digital world, houses will be there as the shelter and beyond.
Linking architecture to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is greatly related to the fact that people are born, live, work, and die in a room. What the whole world is witnessing today from innovations and development is shaped by a room – thus, architecture. Architecture in its different types is leading all activities to occur, and all exchanges to take place.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs_©National Highway Institute
Engagement in Civilizations Through Architecture
Highlighting the importance of Architecture could not be perceived only from the inside. Addressing its vitality should be tackled from the outer realm: The built environment and neighborhoods. For a better understanding of how the built environment affects human beings, architects tend always to refer to how civilizations started to evolve. What is a civilization? The first civilization appeared on earth after an excess of agricultural production and stability of trading, leading human beings at that time to start tracing their urban settlements (Mark, 2022). Going through the sequence of civilizations that passed on Earth, it is widely seen that delightful insights were given to the architecture of common areas. Romans used to gather in the Agora, the medieval period traced marketplaces in front of churches and Islamic architecture used circular cities centred all around religious, public, and marketplaces.
Humans started to interact with urban layouts more than the shelters, giving birth to a controlled and structured social life.
Reshaping The Social Life Through Architecture and Design Practices People can engage everywhere, anytime, and for any reason, but things will take another perspective when architecture intervenes. Architects and urban planners focus on what is going in between spaces as much as they focus on buildings. Neighbors in buildings and districts, build their social life because of architecture. Even though empty spaces and public places can attract people, when architects put their touches, things will turn out to be socially-centred. Sitting under a tree to hide from sun rays can open a conversation between two strangers for example. This is similar to two strangers who might have a conversation on a simple urban intervention – a bus stop.
What goes for public places, goes to residential buildings too. When a building holds within its floors shared amenities, rooftops, balconies, and common lounges, the social bonds between users will be fostered, by architectural designs (Architect Builder Group, 2023).
In parallel, Steven Holl in one of his interviews mentioned that “On the urban level, an architect today should rewrite the program rather than receiving the brief”. Taking about interventions in general, and in social realms in specific, are what boost and reshape social behaviors, relations, and contributions.
What If Architecture Was Not There?
Morning coffee on the balcony, under a tree, on a cliff, or in the middle of a forest, is the same. Reaching the ultimate level of security and safety with all fulfilled needs pushes humans to seek relaxation and moments of rest. Human existence is bounded by natural and manmade architecture: The intertwined relation between both architectures is what drives humanity to evolve.
Coined in 1997, Biomimicry means an inspiration from mother nature to solve problems in different fields such as architecture and design (Verbrugghe, 2023). The architectural practice in the past decades showed a going back-to-roots phenomenon: Sustainability, climate change, increasing population, and many more factors are putting architects on the front line to save humanity. This shows how nature and manmade architecture are deeply intertwined to form a cycle, that all people are looping in from birth to death!
If architecture was not there, humanity would end up in chaos, survival battles, and endless illness.
How can human life proceed without architecture, when the term by itself in joining art and culture? Remember always that architecture – art and culture, are here because of civilizations.
References:
Soul McLeod (2007). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. [Online]. (Last updated 2013). Available at: https://highgatecounselling.org.uk/members/certificate/CT2%20Paper%201.pdf [Accessed 02 April 2024].
Jashoua J. Mark (2022). Civilization. [Online]. Available at: https://www.worldhistory.org/civilization/
[Accessed 01 April 2024].
Architect Builder Group (2023). How Does Architecture Affect Social Life in These Generations? [Online]. Available at: https://architectbuildergroup.com/blog/f/how-does-architecture-affect-social-life-in-this-generation [Accessed 03 April 2024].
Archdaily (2014). AD Interviews: Steven Holl. [Youtube Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U0YPulhQU4
Verbrugghe, N., Rubinacci, E., & Khan, A. Z. (2023). Biomimicry in Architecture: A Review of Definitions, Case Studies, and Design Methods. Biomimetics, 8(1). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8010107
List of Images:
1_Sumpter, I. (2023). Roman Ruins. [Photograph].
2_National Highway Institute. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. [Illustration]. (Document number 3)
3_Soutif, J. A Creative Visualization of Round City. [Illustration].
4_Zhou, R. 3D Structures Reviving From The Colorful Stripes. [Photograph].
