Community Revitalization and the Designer's Role

“In order to carry forward a vision of aspiration, architects need to find a compliant client with lots of money.” While this statement, by Michael Dobbins author of Urban Design and People, is true; there is a lack of connection between design vision and the community development programs. By adding involvement in community as the best way to carry forward a vision of aspiration, designers acknowledge the need to “dig down” and discover what is truly needed within the community being revitalized. More often than not, community developments are left up to the developers and contractors and design follows purpose in implementation.

Dobbins states, “The outcome of work done by ordinary people cooperating with each other, using the means available to them, will inevitably produce forms, shapes, materials and decorative expressions that embody the human spirit.” Take this belief and add design professionals, egos checked at the door, and the educated outcome would be unprecedented.

The aspirations of great architects and planners throughout the years, whose utopian ideas were mostly only realized on paper, are shared by most designers. All of which highlight the “melting pot” of ideas that could be formulated a la carte for specific needs of a community. Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Corbusier are just a few that have blazed a path of grand ideas for urban developments that better a community’s quality of life.

Le Corbusier envisioned the “Radiant City” concept which unfortunately removed historic cityscapes to develop housing for all types of demographics. He incorporated advanced environmental systems and pre-fabricated modern methods of building and design. To preserve land, he elevated the structures approximately 15’ above ground. Utilitarian activities were removed from the individual living spaces and grouped together on their own floor to promote community development within each living tower. But as Dobbins so eloquently points out, “While modernism did achieve improvements for many people, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, the movement suffered from its omission of consideration of all those human values that fall outside of the technical problem solving.”

Corbusier, compared to the other visionaries, completely disassociated his design from the input of the community. The omission of the community was the greatest folly in an otherwise materially progressive and environmentally well thought out concept.

Value added social responsibility: Passion - Collaboration - Implementation

How does the designer fit into the community development equation? The first value is at the heart of specific designers whose passion for creating leads them to make a difference in the community, not just for the sake of making a name.

The second value, collaboration, resides in designers, planners and developers working together with Community Development Corporations (CDC). There are many to choose from. In general, a CDC is a non-profit, housing and commercial developer. Within neglected neighborhoods, they try to instill empowerment and hope through reintroducing employment opportunities and home ownership. For a list of local CDC’s, please follow the following link and select Community Development Council from the resource links on the right. http://www.memphiscommunitydevelopment.com/.

There is a lack of designers involved at the level of inception and maintaining a presence through completion. Planners and developers exist but often are at odds and the planner’s vision for the community, developed with the community’s approval, falls short because the developer is thinking with the economic wand and not the best interest in the client, which is the community.

Traditionally, in the commercial world, the design professional keeps the integrity of the design intact while at the same time accommodating the developer/client desires to meet a certain price matrix. This constant flux of communication generally achieves the closest resemblance to what was originally designed.

In community development schemes, without the mediator of design present from start to finish, almost inevitably, the design concept is dissolved in “value engineering” processes. Proof of how this can be mitigated, with synergistic side affects, lies in my own personal experience with a volunteer based design group.

InsFire, a newly formed design volunteer group moving toward 501c3 status, is working closely with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis. Although they are not a CDC, this is an example of what can be done if applied to CDC’s. Habitat approached my partner with the concept of engaging architects in the design model for habitat homes. In the past, they were largely designed by retired contractors. The emphasis was on purpose and less about design quality and aesthetics. The proposed partnership challenged us to compose a group of under utilized eager intern-design volunteers, design students and philanthropic design professionals.

The outcome, thus far, is a collective that embodies volunteerism, education and collaboration at all levels within the community of Habitat for Humanity and the individuals we come in contact with. As a critique, I would argue there is too much separation between the designers and the home owners. However, there is great opportunity for improvement embodied in this group’s model at the level of community connectivity. As a positive critique, there are invaluable educational synergies created from the designer/contractor perspective to the owner’s understanding of quality home design.

The next push for InsFire will be to expand on the first critique and connect with the owner and to expand on a broader community development project with Habitat. Currently, they contribute “spot” housing development. Their next effort will be a full community neighborhood development and InsFire plans to be involved.

This proactive movement of getting involved is not a suggestion to design professionals, as a whole, to abandon practice at a profit based commercial development level. It is for those who want to step outside their comfort zone of doing what they do because that’s how it’s done.