CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY

CARIG CAMPUS
College of Engineering and Architecture

RESEARCH WORK
“FUNDAMENTALS OF ARCHITECTURE”

BY:
DAMIAN, TRISHA MAE
Table of Contents

1. Community Architecture

2. Socio Cultural basis of Community Design

• Introduction

• Discussion

• Summary and Conclusion

• References
Introduction

The community coagulation seems to be very difficult in the contemporary

urban society. The lack of time, the infinite delaying of the direct contact, the
reversal of the pyramid of values have led to the late formulation of an actual
concept dedicated to the community architecture.
The pessimism of the contemporary philosophers and sometimes the
mathematical solutions given by the sociologists or the excessive psychologization
of the relations between individuals close the reluctant picture that is soaring over
the community. However, the community germs are present in the criteria which
can bring the communities together: place, values, interests, age, spirituality,
even if it is done in a new way.
Currently, the architectural discourses generally start from the contemporary
society premises. It is about the society that we live in, about the communicational,
computerized society and about the architecture that has to meet the society’s
requests the subject of an architecture for community, of a COMMUNITY
ARCHITECTURE is approached more seldom, and even when it is approached,
there is not yet a solid theoretical base or a well-founded concept. The attitude and
also the terminology used are not random and derive from the actual trend’s
computerization, virtualization, spectacularizing, consumerism, secularization,
urbanization, the globalization process, from obeying the ephemeral and
delocalization effects.
Discussion
This Discussion, insists on the fact that the true values that can bring the
communities together are not losing their validity, being only expressed
differently.
The actual tendencies of the society/communication, the fast circulation of
information and the globalization must be seen as resources and not as obstacles.
Architecture, in its concreteness, will never lose its value if it is designed for and
together with the contemporary people. The article shows that today, the architect
must provide integrative teamwork and interdisciplinary spirit skills, the
integrative approach being a sine qua non condition for the architecture of the
actual communities. This translates into extensive multi-interdisciplinary
documentation because the community issue is approached by specialists from
various fields: sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, medicine,
gerontology, theology, architecture and urbanism, communication, and economy.
Along with the theory of the community architecture term, this aims to open
the architect’s appetite to go deeper into the community issue, having an obvious
interdisciplinary point of view. Ultimately, I strongly believe that the expression of
a contemporary civilized society and the architecture that represents it, found its
resources in the life of the communities constitute it, and in the established
relations between their members. Undoubtedly, the architecture reflects the welfare
state of a society, governing policies, but without the community component it
remains unsustainable.
The community represents the deep layer of the society, the spirituality, their
intrinsic values while architecture is in a permanent interdependency with the
community. Today the community architecture is flexible, permeable, open to
communication. Architecture and community define each other, potentiating,
reviving, integrating their own qualities, in this globalization process while
preserving their individual uniqueness.
 The socio-cultural background can be described from different points of
view. Never perhaps, as in the information age where we live, the relation between
culture and communication constituted a more reach resource of analyze,
permanently valid and valued by the sciences that investigate human condition. On
the other hand, the unprecedent development of the media, in an extremely pace,
gave new dimensions to the cultural approaches. Culture, by its scientific and
artistic values, entered in the social life of the individuals, democratizing itself.
These omissions are not rules, the new media ultimately proving themselves
real cultural tools, efficient, that, used with discernment, brings society to a
superior value level. Communication in the virtual environment is shaping
communities, relations between people.
An architecture for community is an architecture that take into account all
these contemporary realities, surpassing the pessimistic tendencies of convictions,
irritation, indifference and extracting the innovative trends and the spirit of the
place. Another consequence of the unprecedent development of the media are
intercultural exchanges, resulted from globalization, conceptualized under the
concept of cultural appropriation, that is manifested in four forms: cultural
exchange, cultural domination, cultural exploitation, and transculturation.
Summary and Conclusion
The purpose of this research was not to give answers to what community
architecture means, it was to introduce the concept of community architecture in
the attention of contemporary research and to give the proper place in the present
society. The concept of community architecture and a community architecture
theory were developed.
However, briefly, what is community architecture? Community architecture
means the built environment that offers itself for community, use or stimulates the
community participation, in a profound social, inclusive sense. It means permanent
and temporary amenities both at urbanistic level- public spaces, squares, fairs and
architecture objects town-halls, libraries, scenes, social establishments, clubs,
gyms, after-school facilities, A space with community valences can be that
between blocks where children play and parents and grandparents are meeting and
chatting. Such a space can be considered with community value only when is
properly arranged, when community approaches it, assumes it, and therefore take
care of it. Otherwise, remains only a space of gregarious manifestations.