Q: Tell us about your background and how you became interested in the social aspect of architecture?
Staub: I’ve always looked at social aspects of the built environment. My doctoral dissertation was on the Americanization of West German housing after World War II, and the conflicts that came out through those policy decisions and lived experiences. That research got me interested in how architecture meshes with our cultural expectations and our ideas of how we want to live.
Q: Your latest book is titled Architecture and Social Sustainability: Understanding the New Paradigm. How do you define social sustainability?
Staub: Social sustainability has not been adequately defined, in part because it can’t easily be quantified. But without the social aspect, our built environment can’t be sustainable. Architects often see sustainability as an ecological problem because buildings are responsible for a lot of CO2 production. But social sustainability is foundational for ecological and economic sustainability: Incorporating this into architecture means shifting our methods of built environment projection to be more inclusive, particularly for marginalized populations, with input from various sources, including a building’s users and other stakeholders. This means planning now for the long term and not merely for short-term returns on investments.
Q: Are there challenges to that kind of planning?
Staub: It’s challenging to elicit from people what they might imagine or need in a built environment because they’re not designers, even though they’re experts in their own lives. We, the architects, are experts in design. To design well, we need to spend time at the outset talking with communities to understand them and their needs. More diversity in the design and planning fields is also important. And integrating social considerations in the design process saves money in the end: When you get it right the first time, there are fewer alterations needed and people treat the buildings better.
Q: In the book, you give some examples of successful participatory building projects. Can you share one?
Staub: Vauban, a district in the German city of Freiburg, located on a former French military base, was designed and built in the 1990s as a sustainable district with direct input from stakeholders—the people who moved into the buildings they co-designed. They took control and guided the process. They hired the architects and often the builders, negotiated with the city and the banks, and were responsible for the district’s master plan. It’s been a very successful
project.
Alexandra Staub is a professor of architecture and an affiliate faculty member of Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute.
