转自：IMPACT STUDIO
Can we use our expertise to make the world a better place? The answer is "Yes!" Today, when designers design buildings, they look not only at aesthetics and environmental sustainability, but also with social equity in mind. They always ask the question, "What does socially responsible architecture look like?"
01 | Definition of spatial justice
Architectural design that treats all users equally while acknowledging their differences, often referred to as fair architecture, is an evolving area of socially responsible building practice.
Equitable Buildings actively include and meet the needs of all people—diverse socioeconomic status, physical abilities, genders, family types, sexual orientations and gender expressions, races, and ethnicities—and Equitable Buildings actively create affordable and equitable housing, healthy and safe communities, and welcoming and accessible public spaces.
So, from the perspective of geographers and planners, geographers and planners deliberately avoid explicitly using the adjective "space" to describe the tendency of contemporary societies to pursue justice and democracy.
In recent years, there has been a dramatic shift in the way people think about space, from emphasizing space as a container or a stage for human activity, or merely a notion of flat drawing of physical dimensions in a fixed form, to a positive force shaping human life, reducing social polarization, income disparities, or, more specifically, the generation of injustice.
[Concept]
In its broadest sense, spatial justice refers to the intentional and focused emphasis on spatial or geographical aspects of justice and injustice. As a starting point, this involves the equitable distribution of society's valuable resources in space and opportunities to use those resources.
Spatial justice is not a substitute for social, economic, or other forms of justice, but rather a way of looking at justice from a critical spatial perspective. From this point of view, justice always has a relevant spatial dimension, and at the same time, all geographical locations have expressions of justice and injustice.
02 | A Justice Perspective
[Causes of spatial inequality]
- The resulting geographical discrimination is the root cause of spatial injustice and the spatial structure that creates privileged advantages due to the geographical location of certain populations. The three most common forces that form place and space discrimination are class, race, and gender, but their effects should not be reduced to segregation alone.
- The political organization of space is a particularly powerful source of spatial injustice, examples of which include the unjust demarcation of constituencies, the red lines of urban investment, the impact of exclusionary zoning on territorial apartheid, institutionalized residential segregation, the imprint of social control over colonial and/or military geography, and the creation of marginal privileged spatial structures from the local to the global.
- The proper functioning of the urban system, the day-to-day activities of urban functions, is a major source of inequality and injustice, because in a capitalist economy, the accumulation of location-determined conditions often leads to a redistribution of real incomes in favor of the rich rather than the poor. Racism, patriarchy, heterosexual bias, and many other forms of spatial and location discrimination further exacerbate this redistributive injustice.
Here's an example to illustrate looking at architecture through the lens of spatial justice. (Summarized in: "Whose Urban Renewal" - Wang Hui)
The concept of "urban renewal" can be understood as the materialization of the concept of "spatial justice". In this way, architects armed with the concept of "spatial justice" have the initiative to understand the world, so that their "urban renewal" behavior should conform to this concept.
"Spatial justice" is also an idealized social presentation, which is a metaphysical idealized content in design.
Urban renewal is the redefinition and division of the original urban pattern, which inevitably involves the redistribution of urban spatial interests, which leads to the problem of just distribution among different interest groups. Since the disadvantaged are often the silent majority, the concern is how to give more care to the disadvantaged groups, therefore, "whose urban renewal" has become the underlying logic of "urban renewal".
The so-called "urban renewal" is the reorganization of the old urban structure by the new order, which brings about the acute problem of redistribution of benefits, so that the people will naturally seek a just ruling. When we use "spatial justice" to examine the issue of "urban renewal", the first thing we need to deny is the justice that is always politically correct, because these so-called justices ultimately bring a waste of justice opportunities.
03 | Related Cases
By Jackson Plumlee
Under Philadelphia's current system of policies and practices, many public spaces are becoming increasingly commodified and monitored, which has an impact on the people, practices, and expressions they cultivate. In some places, community groups have broken this pattern by liberating public lands for more collective gain.
The project explores recyclable spaces based on the governance of the community and the structure of collective interests. This multi-phase approach is intended both to develop the organizational, building, and management capacity of community residents, as well as to spatialize and materialize climate justice in their physical environment.
In addition to these spatial interventions, organized residents can establish more forms of collective governance and own community-used land and affordable housing. By removing land and housing from the commoditized market, establishing a community land trust can maintain long-term affordability.
These spaces also simulate climate adaptation on a tangible human scale by prioritizing the provision of water and solar energy systems. The healing gardens of Peace Square, worker-owned family workshops, and climatic oases are just a few of the many possible productive uses of public land. The project seriously explores the idea that it doesn't have to lead to long-term displacement of residents, who can build an environmentally just future they have long envisioned for themselves.
Affordable housing in Berlin
By Moritz Maier, Ruonan Wang
1. A systematic approach
Berlin's housing crisis, which lacks 80,000 apartments a year and rents that have risen by 10%, requires a proposal that can be applied and replicated across the city to solve the problem on a larger scale. Therefore, we propose a systematic expansion of the social housing complex. The standardized design of these dwellings allows this simple housing system to be placed and replicated on a large number of buildings. In addition, by stacking units on top of existing structures, the cost of the plot is saved, eliminating the most important expense of housing projects in urban areas.
2. Economic sustainability and flexibility
In order to prevent affordable housing from being held hostage to market dynamics, it is necessary to design an economically sustainable and flexible housing property rights system. We propose to combine self-management and owners through a complex system. The design features a common structural frame made of polycarbonate, in which individual units can be inserted. Within this framework, individual units can be gradually expanded and internally adapted to the needs of their inhabitants. Over time, more units can be built as new residents join the complex. Thanks to the option to scale incrementally. The system allows the initial 47 m' unit to be upgraded to a maximum of 131m*, providing adequate space for almost all types of residents.
3. Quality
A key feature of affordable housing is the high standard of architecture and space design, especially when compared to other low-cost housing concepts. While each unit is relatively small, a common corridor and shared space is provided to accommodate additional programs and activities. The spaces are located within a frame and could be used as a shared kitchen, gym, garden, or cinema. In addition, these spaces can also be used by the residents of existing buildings, eventually forming a community between old and new residents. In separate units, loggias and terraces can be inserted as additional space.
4. Construction costs
We took into account the choice of materials as well as the cost of transportation and assembly. The materials chosen must be lightweight to reduce the load on the existing building. In order to allow for the gradual expansion of the individual units, the building components must be transportable and easy to assemble on site without the need for large machinery. The structural frame consists of cross-laminated timber members, and the walls and floors of each unit are made up of standardized insulated timber frames that can be assembled on-site.
04 | summary
Architecture is defined by society in the form of space (spatial justice) and society (justice space). And architects and urban designers don't just design buildings and physical systems. Architects should take a stance against inequality and practice accordingly.
Designers can imagine new spatial procedures, political and economic strategies, and social ways through a variety of models. Challenge existing exclusionary policies to promote a more experimental architecture that is not constrained by formal parameters. Designers must see themselves not only as designers of things, but also as designers of fairness and justice.