This article is an independent version of the article featured in this issue of DOK Architecture Journal. You can access the entire journal via this link:
When we design to dictate, we lose the spirit of design.
The impulse to solve a problem.
Every design choice is also a directive.
Doors tell us where to enter,
benches tell us how long to stay,
streets tell us where to walk.
But when does guidance become control?
How do we prevent it from becoming a rigid rule for the user?
These questions deeply shape how a design is perceived.
We should recognize the power of design.
We decide where
people sit,
sleep,
shower,
and live.
It should not just be about what we want to achieve or what the user wants.
Great design sees the needs and recognizes what’s possible-and what’s not-in that particular set of circumstances.
It should not dictate. It should orient and align.
There should be neither only one way for a room to become a bedroom, nor infinite possibilities.
The middle ground between rigor and limitlessness is the sweet spot of a functional design.
Haussmann’s Paris used boulevards to prevent riots.
Bentham’s panopticon turned surveillance into architecture.
These examples reopen the unanswered question of the purpose of architecture.
Designing a space is always an act of power.
However this power should not make the designer the only set of eyes in the living design of the space.
It should allow the user to imagine, to anticipate and prepare for their possible needs by design before they even live in it.
Before you met them. Which most of us never be able to do.
The ethical question is whether this power liberates or dictates.
