Towards an Architecture of Social Responsibility

Abstract

This thesis asserts that the built environment, as a primary stage for social and economic activity, responds to and contributes to social and economic conditions. Architects must design buildings that are appropriate not only with respect to culture, climate, and available resources, but with respect to societal needs and inequities that are often ignored. The current state of the profession of architecture must be reevaluated in light of its passivity towards questions of social justice. The architect must assume greater responsibility as an agent for the public interest because the architect has a discernable, measureable impact on society whether he or she wants/intends to. My goal is to advance a basic design-making framework to demonstrate how architects and designers can address social injustices in the built environment through a design project which would result in benefiting the social and environmental opportunities of diverse stakeholders.