Yage Chen- Prompt 2

PROMPT 2

Discuss ONE of the following questions with your mentor.  Select the question that best reflects your values for future practice:

How do you build a practice that is focused on people?

How do you build a practice that engages community?

How do you build a practice that is adaptable to change?

The question we chose is :"How do you build a practice that is focused on people?".

So, we read an article called:"Felt Needs Community Development Theory". "Felt Needs" is an idea about a change that is considered necessary to correct a community problem. We mention this because when we do some urban planning, there is need to do some data collection, analyzing. So, analyzing it objectively, creating it objectively, and making right choices, are very important. But sometimes, analysis in community development work is replaced by intuition and normative ideas of what is right and appropriate. When the community expresses its ideas, hopes, and dreams, these are taken as givens.

For example, this time when I participated in their volunteer activities for Chicora neighborhood, some residents in this area passed by. I can not see if they are happy or not. Actually, I didn't know what exactly their feeling were. People may think volunteer work are good anyway. But you need to know what do they really need.

So, "Felt Needs" allows a participatory method to emerge, which is focused on people. There is need to asking what do they really need right now and in the future. But, the disadvantage of felt needs practice is that it can be seriously culture-bound. Assumptions and culture norms may not be questioned, and in the end the status quo in terms of the social order is extremely likely to be upheld.

I think that focused on people is very important in the process of urban planning. Architecture in some extent is focusing in the future. It also focuses on people's every day life. So, knowing what the people living in this neighborhood, what they are thinking, their habit, their dream is very important in the process of design. The designer is the bystander and also participator of the neighborhood. Try to stand at their position and think about their problems. And also give their you suggestions, opinions. Everything has pros and cons. Maybe you are right, but they just can not see, but they want to keep it. You need to respect their choice. It is a process of communication.