Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordable CoHousing (FWD)

[Stuart Staniford-Chen (stanifor]

Harry Pasternak wrote:

>> It is simple to cut the costs of housing... The inhabitants MUST [emphasize
>> mine] design it themselves-they can do it better than architects.

and John Massengale replied:

> I have as many bad things to say about architects as just about anyone, but
> this oversimplification is really a bit insulting. Not to mention dumb -- all
> non-architects are better designers than ALL architects?

> Do you have any pictures of your work, Harry?

While agreeing that what Harry said is clearly an over-generalization, I 
can't resist responding to your last comment.  It rather seems to me that one 
of the main problems with architecture as a profession is that it is judged 
on the basis of a picture of the building, rather than on whether the users 
of the building like it or not.  Hence we get lots of grand statement 
buildings which leak and work poorly as social environments.  (Not to say 
that all architecture is that way, but a lot is).

So why don't we ask Harry to back up his assertions with post-occupancy 
surveys rather than pictures?

Stuart.
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Stuart Staniford-Chen           |       Dept of Computer Science
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