Benjamin Clavan

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It's About the People!

This book is about architecture, but not about formal architectural images. It is about the people who inhabit and use buildings and places. It is about the people who have made and will make buildings and places. It is a book about subjects and themes that directly impact the lives of the people who will utilize these efforts. All these issues open the door to the systematic investigation of

This book is about architecture, but not about formal architectural images. It is about the people who inhabit and use buildings and places. It is about the people who have made and will make buildings and places. It is a book about subjects and themes that directly impact the lives of the people who will utilize these efforts.

All these issues open the door to the systematic investigation of the question of value, of what works and what does not, of what is good and bad. Inside the academy, it questions the accepted dogma of subjectivity and neutrality in traditional teaching, particularly as it applies to subjects of taste and perception in architecture. Outside the academy, it requires a willingness to engage with the community in ways much different from traditional detached observation and recordation. The result is a much different and much more sensitive relationship between architects and their clients, teachers and their students, and even between students and their peers.

Effectively, it points to the need of a seminal change in the way we look at the production of architecture as a whole today. Nothing is lost: not beauty, not individuality, nor the eagerness to experiment with form. The wonder of it all is that there is everything to gain.