_thinkMake Week-03:reading -02 ( Space is always political)

 Space is always political

Melanie Dodd

 

The idea that "architecture is always political" by Richard Rogers was important during times of housing crises, social displacement, and gentrification. A group called Architecture for Social Housing (ASH) held a protest in 2015 that called for social inequality to be addressed in the built environment and criticized the politics of architecture. People usually think of architecture and spatial practice as being connected to money. But this chapter looks at how spatial activism, short-term interventions, and socially engaged approaches can change social and political outcomes. This chapter talks about how politics shape both space and politics.

 

The process of redesigning public parks in a city is one example of this. There may be different ideas among interest groups about how the space should be used and organized. This could lead to disagreements, and everyone will need to work together to find a solution. This political nature of space is clear when choices about the park's layout and purpose have an effect on social outcomes, like making it easier for some groups to use or giving commercial interests more weight than public use.

 

The building of national borders is an example of how space is used for political purposes. A lot of different political actors with different goals are involved in the decision to set borders and define territories. These include government officials, activists, and indigenous communities. These people negotiate, either together or against each other, to shape the physical borders of a country, which affects the social and political lives of people who live within those borders.

 

 For instance, the rise of gentrification in cities can be seen as a political result of the spatial turn. Cities have become more important cultural and economic hubs, which has made the competition for desirable urban space tougher. This has caused problems between different social groups, like long-time residents and wealthy newcomers. It has also caused problems between private developers and public interests, like those wanting affordable housing and keeping the community together. This conflict takes place in space, which shows how space itself can be a place of political struggle and negotiation.