Anarchy is the only way

I believe cities are spatial representations of the mood of the societies that live in in. Pop culture abounds with examples of this. There is Batman’s gloomy Gotham, Superman’s merry Metropolis, Frank Miller’s dark Sin City and Jamestown Accra’s suffocating alleyways which were purposely build to confuse kidnappers.

The history of civilization suggests that cities initially sprung up to serve the purpose of their communities and so their forms were informed by the function of the inhabitants. However as time passed and the population increased, a city became a way to proclaim the glory of monarchies and empires. Hence there was need for well-designed cities. Architects took up this role and reigned as both designers and project managers.

The 1960s were the glory years of architecture with architects who were flamboyant, revered and domineering. An example of which is Le Corbusier, regarded as the grandfather of modern architecture. In our current period however the architect’s role has diminished and in order to remain relevant, I suggest that architects must seek to be anarchists.

Now, I know anarchy brings to mind violent crimes against the state but that is not what I am recommending. Anarchy is about upsetting the status quo by removing domination and division. The anarchy I refer to is the anarchy of Walter Segal & Otto Königsberger.

Walter Segal & Otto Königsberger may not have identified as anarchists yet they were architects who worked under the anarchist principles of respect, creativity and cooperation. Walter Segal advocated for inhabitants of a community to be able to quickly design and build their own homes using readily available.

Otto Königsberger created the concept of Action Planning in urban development. He realized that cities were living organisms with a mind of their own. Therefore his action plans called for continuous monitoring and design updates with the involvement of the city inhabitants in order to keep up with the growth of a city. He understood (like anarchists believe) that people and societies are largely able to manage themselves.

When architects think like anarchists it means they realize that they are not superior to the people who they design buildings and public spaces for. I think (and hope) that progress will be made on Accra’s poor urban planning issue when architects in Ghana try to understand ways of involving the lifestyle and available materials of communities in their design thinking.