WeeK 4 - Lecture Reflection

In this weeks lecture, Yasu brought us into the mindset of 'People and Lifestyle' (the theme of this weeks charette). One quote in particular stood out to me during this lecture:

If you are to design a space for two or more people...you think about these people...are they friends, colleagues, strangers, family members...what do they want to do...what do they need and how can they be provided...do they need to eat, drink, work, enjoy, shop, rest, separated, covered, protected, survive...how... what do 1,000 people need, what about 10,000...what if you do not know exactly who they are and what they need...how do you deal with indeterminacy...

After seeing this comment, this brought me back to thinking about the individual. Depending on who or what you are designing for (the individual or a number of individuals), it is typical to fall into desiging for cultural/social archetypes. But why must this be the case? Architecture should respond differently to every community and every individual otherwise we risk creating segregation. We should look more clearly into understanding the individual needs of everyday life, how people interact, why people interact, how people move, and what do they want from a space. This is an interesting mindset for an architect, and a necessary one for the success of architectural functionality.