Treating Consumption

As Architects, Urban designers, Planners we are often handed a land use budget developed by the client who is invariably a property developer whose interest is limited to the sale of land plots to make money. Here is the manifestation of the notion of society living following the ‘business as usual ‘scenario and the consequences of business as usual being ‘Somebody Else’s Problem’.

The question is who are we designing for? Property developers or the people who are going to live in the developments? Many would have us believe that it is the property developers and not the end users, although it is the end users that we have a responsibility to accommodate in our schemes. Part of the problem is that when projects are developer led, the elements most easy to sell are prioritised, with less attention being given to the facilities that are required by the community, in short, the stuff that nobody cares about until they need it, or more accurately elements of the urban plan that developers would avoid paying for if they could.

There are a number of essential services provided through local and regional healthcare facilities, such as antenatal care, care for the elderly, treatment of trauma, but there is also a large proportion of healthcare spending that is expended on dealing with the consequences of living the consumer lifestyle.

Many healthcare facilities have obesity clinics, to deal with the consequences of overconsumption, and reduced mobility due to availability of fast food and reliance on the car to get around. Coupled with this is dealing with addiction, to drugs, both legal and illegal that people take to help them cope with everyday life. Dealing with disease due to exposure to air pollution, contaminants in our water, or simply living unhealthy lifestyles. There are countless injuries suffered as a result of the sheer volume of cars on the roads, that healthcare providers are expected to cope with.

Behind all this is the pharmaceutical industry that benefits from treating the symptoms rather than society dealing with the problems, so for many business as usual is just fine, and the consequences are somebody else’s problem. 

Work in progress on Is Architecture Enough? The Journey Beneath the Surface of Architecture Continues...the follow up to Do We Need ARCHITECTS? A Journey Beneath the Surface of Architecture, available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris.