“Architecture depends; the question is, on what? On people, time, politics, ethics, mess; the real world.”[1]
Paul Shepheard says, “A provocative declaration of war on utopia, powered by a fuel rich in social justice and sharp humor… With this book Jeremy Till raises the starting price on all our discussions of architecture.”
A program “The House That £100k Built” by BBC raised the question whether the architect is required or not. The key concerns for hiring an architect were the cost, fees, functional complications etc. and profession started becoming reductant. “Jeremy Till claims that architecture exists in a bubble and ignores the way people really live.”[2]
Jane Jacobs and Habraken’s theory advocated social practice… why cannot the architectural practice adopt contingency if other practices do. Social practice has inclusive process of policymaking stakeholders for social projects.
Architecture Depends discusses architecture in three parts: Part I talks about the concept of contingency with different people in profession of architecture. Part II talks that the architectural space should be taken in to account and not the phony desires of the architect. Part III discusses how the processes of making of architecture should be prioritized and not the product of architecture.
“The fact that this responsibility is vested in the Institute of Architects (and not Architecture) only goes to confirm that it is architects alone who control this patch of knowledge called architecture.”[3] The constitution makes an architect the supreme authority for the concerned project and there the possibility of negotiation or contingency is neglected. Jeremy here talks about contingencies and not just the problems.
Real project vs studio project: the studio project is for academic purpose and there the end user or client is imaginary (though professors are experienced enough), the actual condition or requirements from end-user is not dealt with. Whereas the real project is meant for the end-user/ client and his needs, requirements imagery for the project may change during the project life. Moreover, at that time architect should deal with the requirements as being a spatial agency and not as the supreme authority. An architect is not a negotiator, but he is an agency.
It is like family rules and social rules and not like norms or regulations. For the betterment of client/ end-user, the attitude of the professional should be adoptive. Spatial agency talks about needs of the user where as spatial praxis talks about theories of space and pedagogy. However, the end-user should not be kept out of consideration.
In India, generally we have seen the practice not followed strictly, as per the rules set by Council of Architecture (COA). The journey of the project from conceptual drawing to final execution passes through number of changes and (having loopholes in the sanctioning process,) after modifications are possible. Nevertheless, there should be appropriate framework by authority. Also in academics, the curriculum should introduce how to deal with the contingencies along with ‘professional practice’ in profession.
[1] Review of the book, Jeremy Till, “Architecture depends”, The MIT Press, London-2009
[2] Discussion on: Architecture and Living – Class Endures, BBC
[3] Jeremy Till, “Architecture depends”, The MIT Press, London-2009