Peter Hubner with an evangelical youth group designed a small chapel space for prayer and contemplation. This was not a community of architects and designers, but citizens, a priest, the regional head of the youth group and members.
Hubner took an interesting approach to designing with this community. To help participants understand the needed scale of the space, he first had each person make a scale model (1:10) of themselves followed by an exercise in which the group explored configurations with their bodies while reclining, standing, in motion and static. Beginning with exercises like these enabled the community and the architect to understand the necessary scale of the space based on the actions of those who would use it. You can read further about the process of design and construction here.
Enabling public understanding of the design process was an effective way to engage the community as designers. The architect benefited by understanding in greater detail the needs of the end user.
1 comment:
The process developed by Peter Hübner is inspiring and beautiful. It is very refreshing to learn that some architect can successfuly integrate people in their design process. Isn't the essence of architecture and ultimate purpose to serve people's needs? If this is the case it seems fair and adequate to say that the architect's job first requires to create favorable situations to help people identify and express their needs. Let's hope many Hübners with soon populate architecture.
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