falling on deaf ears

NDC = new deal for communities (urban regeneration) = past

political failure & future hope

NEW = An acknowledgement that the old systems have not worked

placatory participation
DEAL = A transaction ; we give you money, you give us back
improvements participation
“In all particpatory processes there are degrees of involvment
ranging from token participation to full control of the process by
COMMUNITIES =A wishful & wistful hope that fractured terri- “Increases the feeling among individual citizens that they belong
citizen participants.”
tories can be reconsolidated into some semblance of communi- in their community.”
ty, without ever specifiying what world may actually mean “We arrive at the argument that the amount of participation that
actually obtains is just the amount that is required for stable sys- negotiating space
democratic theory of rousseau
“ We shouldn’t be surprised about this apparent gap between the tems of democracy.”
ideals and reality of participation. The story of participation runs “Participation presents a threat to mainstream architectural cul-
parallele to that of democracy and one does not have to be a great ture, which so often exists in a state of denial about the political
democracy contemporain paliative to ensure that stability implications of the processes and products of practice.”
political theorist to detect that the soothing Hellenic etymology
of democracy - the people’s rule - i disturbed by undercurrents of
protective participation = placebo
power, manipulation & disenfrichissment.” Carole PATEMAN = more complex democracy negociation
rousseau : individual citizen in political decision-making
henry sanoff “dies, the HOPE for splendid inhabitation dies and mostly likely
someone else other than dwellers will take over.”
“Participants HAVE A SENSE of influencing the design process... It
transformative participation is not so much the degree to wish the individual needs have been
met, but the FEELING of having influenced the decisions.”
As an active signal its opposition to the passive nature of placatory
participation.

communication between expert & non-expert is not

transparent = own terms of experts

circumbscribing the process through

professionnably coded drawings & language
“In its specialist pursuit of techniques and aesthetics, architectural
discours detaches itself from the everyday desires and needs of
the social lifeword.”
design conference ideas tension reality
gap
architecture & participation the problem of the problem
“One cannot suppress what needs to be there and yet architectural
THREAT FEAR OF ARCHITECTS
culture is in a state of denial about many aspects of participation.” vitruvian triad : comodity - firmess - delight Exposing architect project as a SOLUTION to a PROBLEM
negative connotation participation = tHE NEED TO REASSES WHAT CONSTI-
1. Solve problems of function in as efficient a manner as TUTES THEIR KNOWLEDGE BUT ALSO THE WORRY THAT IN
idealised

possible SO DOING ONE MAY NO LONGER BE SEEN AS AN ARCHITECT.

participation threats the most central tenets “Design is not so much a manner of adjusting to the sta-
forms

of architecture 2. advance on technical fronts as a sign of progress tus quo as of realizing new possibilities and discovering
our reactions to them.” reacting from this bind : paying attention to context
3. a polishing of forms in accordance with prevailing aes-
the denial of the political realm is one such thetic sensibilities “SENSE-MAKIng is not simply a matter of instrumental prob-
mechanism by which that thret is suppressed lem-solving, it is a matter of altering, respecting, acknowledging, “Architectural knowledge should not be applied as an abstraction
and shaping people’s lived worlds.” from the outside, but dvelopped from within the context of the
given situation.”
problems when it meets reality john shotter

“the architect becomes an activist, working on behalf of and as a dweller.”

+ Upsets the carefully laid plans of utility (users can be so
annoyingly unpredictable)
“The architect should, in effect, be an expert citizen
+ It ignores many of the values held high by architectural as well as citizen expert.”
culture (no saring architects obsessions)
leading & representing
+ It brings into play issues that are overbloocked by the
vitruvian triad
the architect, moving between the worlds of expert
“And so the architect will do everything possible to and citizen, engages with the worlds as organic
delay the fateful moment when reality bites.” intellectual, a new form of professionals.

the expert citizen / citizen expert + articulation with user’s knowledge

urban story telling making best sense

drawing as media of architecture bringing and not killing contingency

mute to outsider participation, by bringing forward what is other-
the exclusion is reinforced by the technical wise denied or delayed, presents a “threat”
nature of so much architectural discourse

“The key lies in reconising the power and validity of ordinary contingency offers opportunity and no threat
conversation as a starting point for the particpatory process.”

“The very act of stroytelling, an act that presumes in its interlocutor
an euality of intelligence rather than an inequality of knowledge,
posits equality, just as the act of explication posits inequality.”
what if? = stories
Architects nee to accept changes to the
standard methods and values of practice,
and in particular to see that the issues that
participation brings to the fore present not a
threat but an opportunity leading to a more
empowering form of architecture.