Photo by BERK OZDEMIR
Ronald Lee Harden’s book on the Black architectural history of Tampa, Florida, touches upon the way society and architecture are intertwined and interrelated.
Architecture can mean many things. It is a field of science, a study in art, and a calling. And many more. Architecture is foremost an art form that prioritizes the social since its outcomes provide the greatest benefit to society, and it is also a scientific endeavor because a rigorous and empirical approach is needed to conduct architectural work. It can also be called a calling because architecture—great architecture, at least—requires strict congruence between burning passions and radical innovation.
While largely ignored and overlooked by the average person, architecture is foundational to broader society. It is another way in which humans manipulate the natural world to suit their needs and enrich themselves.
Architecture is the reflection of how humanity tries to fit into the world around them.
The history of the civilization of deeply tied with the history of architecture. We, as humans, are profoundly visual creatures, and this means that our first instinct is always to know if we can see a subject, whether it be through our physical eyes or our mind’s eye.
This also means that the way we go about with our domiciles and broader “human” environment is through that which is perceptible to our eyes—and this is where architecture comes in.
While most people think of architecture as a stuffy and dull practice that sometimes makes beautiful and pretty buildings to look at that, there is so much more to the concept than drawing or sketching structures.
Architecture, in many ways, is the culmination and collaboration of many elements and fields of human endeavor. Humans have always changed the world to adapt to themselves, and architecture is one of the most potent ways we can achieve that.
Architecture also is emblematic of a society’s engagement with the world and its characteristic tendencies with regard to values, achievements, and beliefs. From the largest monuments to the smallest hovels, architecture provides invaluable insight into the collective human psyche and the many angles it has created to look at the world and humanity’s place in it.
Through investigating the architectural trends of the past and those of today, together with findings from adjacent and complimentary fields of inquiry, we acquire a better understanding of ourselves as a species and as a community as well as discover novel and productive ways that architecture itself affects the development of society.
For example, in Ronald Lee Harden’s book on the Black architectural history of Tampa, Florida, you can clearly draw the lines to how the architecture of the place, especially during its earliest periods, is reflective of the city’s historical and modern racial demographics.
Knowing that this is the case and it is most often the case that society shapes the trends in architecture, there is a question simply waiting to be begged: How does architecture affect society?
Although it is not easily quantifiable, it is safe to say that the effects of architecture are far-reaching and even irreplaceable. As mentioned before, architecture is many things: a field of science, a study in art, and a calling.
It is the perfect union between human self-expression and the natural environment.
It is also a reciprocal union; while each can exist co-dependently, there is always a give-and-take—one influences the other, and there is no path to preventing that closed cycle.
When we imagine a world without architecture, we imagine a world where societies are indistinct from each other, at least in terms of structure; a world lacking in any architectural concepts would be a world that is demonstrably drab and dreadfully dull. It would be a world completely strange and unfamiliar to us.
That is because we already live in a world where architecture is infused into the very fabric of the environments we’ve built for ourselves; so, it’s not an exaggeration to say that a world without architecture is virtually unimaginable, especially if you consider landscaping under architecture’s umbrella.
The greatest benefit that architecture has given society is its ability to offer a wide array of ways to manipulate the natural world and employ its vast resources to create for ourselves homes and structures suitable for our use and habitation.
It is because of architecture that society and humanity as a whole have comfort and security, allowing us to better ourselves and improve society.
The Happy Hammock 