…how wrong do we get it when we impose designs from above and not within?
An ambiguous brief for a marginalised, unrepresentated enduser in a foreign country: surely the ultimate situation for which the visionary architect was trained?
We, the Romania live project ‘07 team are tasked with providing design serives to the Roma community in the town of Tarlungeni, through the charity FAST’s ‘Better Homes’ project. They have a prototype home which is an improvement on current housing conditions, however it still falls short of providing a dwelling sypathetic to roma families.
The realisation dawned upon us that despite our best design intentions there will be an inevitable impostion of our ideas on to the user. However this imposition can be reduced through investigating local materials and construction methods; studying the Roma way of live; looking at the topography and involving the community in design and decision making. However this can only be done once out in Tarlungeni.
We have decided to investigate the concept of ‘designing from above’; we will produce an ‘improved’ home before we go – based on preconceptions and a lack of local knowledge of customs, construction systems and topography. We will then challenge this design once out in Tarlungeni, after community consultation, and see what changes need to be made.
To move forward:
Research topics
- the roma people their cultural & ethnograohic history
- prefabricated timber construction
- romanian housing industry & state housing policy
- project background, the FAST charity & stake holders
- earthquake design
Planned workshops
- house layout
- settlement layout
- construction technology
