In every profession it is important to realize that profession's most basic objectives: in journalism, to communicate information, in law to provide advice that serves the best interests of clients and society, and, in architecture, beyond all the multimillion (and billion) dollar projects, to provide shelter. "Strip away all [of] the ego in architecture and all the design theory, the hype, and the hot magazine articles, all we do is provide shelter. If you can't do that, you can't call yourself an architect," says Cameron Sinclair.
Sinclair, in defiance of the focus on aesthetics in architecture, is impassioned by a different agenda: socially responsible design. In his book, "Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises," he profiles such projects in Afghanistan, Brazil and South Africa. As he explains:
"Actually, the role of the architect is a political one. You make a conscious choice whether you're going to do a project or not do a project. You can say, 'It's really a shame what happened down in the Gulf Coast, but I don't really want to get involved in that.' I actually do an art project once a year, an art project for myself, just to keep my creative juices going...Just as I was coming out of college, I did a project dealing with homelessness in New York. I had located the housing to block the Statue of Liberty, and the idea that when the city took responsibility of its homeless, it'd get it's view of Liberty back, because there was this idea of 'bring us your huddled masses yearning to be free.' And here we are in New York and there were 60,000 people on the streets. So I think you as a designer have the opportunity to come up with a pragmatic and innovative sustainable response..." (Interview with Paul Schmelzer, Eyeteeth)
Take a look at Architecture for Humanity, the organization he co-founded, for more information on sustainable design projects. You can read an excerpt from the book here.
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