Wiedzieć, dla kogo się projektuje. O idei architektury społecznej w twórczości Alejandra Araveny i Petera Zumthora

Barbara Stec

doi:10.48269/2451-0858-pis-2025-1-006

Published: 2025-06-23

Vol. 25 No. 1 (2025)

Knowing Who You Are Designing for: On the Idea of Social Architecture in the Works of Alejandro Aravena and Peter Zumthor

Barbara Stec

Section: Architecture and Urban Planning

https://doi.org/10.48269/2451-0858-pis-2025-1-006

Abstract

The aim of the article is a comparison of the architectural design methods of Alejandro Aravena and Peter Zumthor, imlemented in their projects with a high social impact. These methods and their application were analyzed according to the criteria of social architecture, assuming that it is the idea of designing based on the precise, real scenarios of the human needs and possibilities. While the social nature of Araven’s method and the projects of the Elemental studio he led is widely recognized, Zumthor’s work is not associated with the social ideas, but on the contrary – with the subjective and artistic ideas. However, in Zumthor’s method, an equally precise approach to the architectural needs of the futures users was noticed, and the projects selected for analysis encourage the research in the aspect of their social values. It was noted that despite the extremely different social environments of the recipients of architecture and its aesthetic values, in both cases it meets the social expectations and needs. The study indicated surprisingly similar solutions in the projects of residential units of both architects. The conclusions indicated, that the high aesthetic quality of the architecture may limit the informal its development.

Keywords:

the social architecture , the design method , the design constraints , the user needs , the user capabilities , Peter Zumthor , Alejandro Aravena

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Stec, Barbara. “Knowing Who You Are Designing For: On the Idea of Social Architecture in the Works of Alejandro Aravena and Peter Zumthor”. Państwo I Społeczeństwo State and Society, vol. 25, no. 1, June 2025, pp. 133-59, doi:10.48269/2451-0858-pis-2025-1-006.

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Vol. 25 No. 1 (2025)
Published: 2025-06-23

eISSN: 2451-0858

10.31749/2451-0858-SaS

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AFM Publishing House of the Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Knowing Who You Are Designing for: On the Idea of Social Architecture in the Works of Alejandro Aravena and Peter Zumthor

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Keywords:

Barbara Stec

MSHE Poland