WHAT ARE OUR LIMITS?

Elemental. Quinta Monroy Housing Project. Iquique, Chile. 2003–05. Image: Cristobal Palma

In the early 1930's in the Soviet Union, the debate among architects were whether the city would still exist or would be merged with the countryside. The debate between the 'urbanists' or 'deurbanists', though, had one thing in common: they were arguing how people would behavior towards their living spaces.

The city is a complex structure that cannot be fully designed — not even by using the most complex software with as many data as possible. The essence of this difference is the multiplicity of wills and the freedom to turn it into action.

Why would one architect/urban designer/urban planner, or a small group of them, have the answer for all of urban complexity? Why try to come up with such complex urban designs if some people are still not going to be fully satisfied and might, if they have the freedom to do so, change their space? To which extend should we design or let it be done by people?