Community Defrag

Abstract

In America, society has become fragmented. For the average person, the typical week may consist of dropping the kids off at day care, going to work, the store, and perhaps church on Sunday. Each of these locations becomes an isolated destination with no relationship to the other destinations. This has an effect not only on how we view spaces, but also on how we view the people we encounter within those spaces. People begin to be associated with certain places, which, in turn, begins to fragment social life. Coworkers, service providers, and exercising partners are some of the labels that begin to define one’s relationships, limiting those relationships to the places in which those people are encountered. Those who do not visit any of the destinations that others go to are quite likely never to meet them. What effect, then, does the fragmenting of social life have on community space? The typical and cliché places deemed “community spaces”, such as coffee houses, galleries, and community centers, become nothing more than another destination -- another fragment. It is imperative that we rethink the way we create community and, consequently, community spaces. Community should become pervasive, rather than becoming just another fragment of life. This means that community should become an integral part of all the existing fragments within society, and ideally, become an adhesive that holds them together. An architectural response can provide the opportunity for the development of this concept of community through rethinking the arrangement of programs and the design of spaces. Architecture can provide the framework for new social interactions to occur by allowing people to engage new groups of people (bringing disassociated fragments together) and allowing already familiar individuals to engage each other in new ways (creating stronger ties between fragments). Innovative programming and a thoughtful, nontraditional arrangement of spaces will be vital components for the success of the thesis.