Hands On: Collective Space-Making and Building

By Lauren Scott

"The built environment exists as a physical manifestation of our social, economic, and political priorities—making it both a powerful canvas for and subject of agency and advocacy.
The works presented here challenge the notion that architectural expertise belongs exclusively to professionals, focusing on participatory design/build methodologies and increasing accessibility to architectural practices. Shared space-making and construction knowledge not only belong in the hands of the public, but can be critical tools of resilience or resistance as communities increasingly rely on themselves and each other in times of hardship and hostility. Architectural and spatial literacy become a means of self-determination and collective action.
This flow of knowledge is bi-directional and reciprocal. In working with various communities, it immediately becomes evident that “non-specialists” possess extraordinary capacity to transform their surroundings. Architects can translate that knowledge; to design simple, inclusive, and accessible building practices and processes to be accessible to all.
Using found, off-the-shelf, non-toxic, and readily available materials allows for the construction methods to be replicated. Slow and steady community-initiated building offers moments for reflection and adjustment throughout the process. Working with, rather than against, the existing built environment allows spatial readings of structures as a palimpsest - continuously changing layers that record our collective history and shape our possible futures.
Soil in Our Hands, Soft Intervention, and “Animals” demonstrate deliberately cost-effective, materially responsible approaches and processes that make thoughtful design available to communities regardless of financial resource. Transformative design solutions often emerge not from singular architectural vision but from collaborative processes that center embodied and cultural community knowledge and tradition. Each of these projects leverage the latent material, historical, social, and spatial characteristics of spaces at multiple scales to invite a collective and ongoing re-imagination of the built environment."