Can Architecture Reduce Violence?
acla:works director, Gary Turton, thinks it has the potential to do so. Gary recently contributed the article, "Building Serenity," to the Jul-Sep issue of the TTCSI Quarterly. It's a relevant piece, given Trinidad & Tobago's ever-increasing murder rate, as well as recent challenges throughout the region to find suitable people to head up local police forces.
Perhaps, as Gary infers, we should be addressing the problem at its root and not just its end. His argument stems from the case study of a city that was once one of the world's most violent – Medellín, Colombia – where, over the past decade, architecture and politics have contributed to a 90% reduction in the crime rate.
Gary writes: "[Former mayor of Medellín] Fajardo's approach was that any reduction in violence was immediately supplemented with a 'concrete community improvement.' As the murder rate dropped, the city's poorest neighbourhoods became home to brilliant new schools, housing, community spaces and 'library parks' . . . . Fajardo stated in an interview with architect Giancarlo Mazzanti, 'From the time I was a child, it was clear to me what aesthetics meant as a tool for social transformation, as a message of inclusion. That is something that is often misunderstood here. Underneath it all is the most important word in all of those urban interventions in which architecture plays an important role: dignity.'
Could a lack of dignity be Trinidad & Tobago's main issue? The case of Medellín makes us wonder which version of Trinidad & Tobago we might be living in today had our government taken the money used to build those half-empty buildings on and near the waterfront and chosen, instead, to create real opportunities for change in some of our islands' forgotten (or deliberately snubbed) neighbourhoods.
Download Gary's article, "Building Serenity: How Architecture Can Reduce Violence" (PDF 380KB).
Also in this issue of the TTCSI Quarterly Gary writes on "Future Design: The Importance of ICTs to Architecture." (Download the PDF 880KB).
Exterior view of the library Biblioteca León de Greiff, Medellín. Designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti.
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
Next entry:
Healthcare in the New Decade
Previous entry:
Brian's Photo Tip #2: Composition
