Stewardship with Sara Khorshidifard

January 1, 2018

Author: Sara Khorshidifard, Assistant Professor – Bowling Green State University

Stewardship emanates from an architecture aiming at designing the future. The architecture is projecting optimistic change while acting small. In an anticipation of making the world a better place, the steward architect can detect the needs and guides solutions through materializing spaces.  Architecture can work to address some of the biggest challenges the world is facing today.

Architecture holds transformative effects nurturing harmony in the lives of people, and between people and the earth, natural landscapes, and cultures. The design could be considered beyond forms, but weighed by the impacts to be anticipated from the proposed design solution. Design for the common good remains in support of vital needs and human desires. The spirit demands inclusive forms of practice and process that embrace shared values and genuine ways of connecting the people with their places. In a world rapidly using up resources, the steward architect would prioritize, continuously remaining on the verge and duty to first and foremost address timely needs of its most vulnerable populations.

­Architecture, at its very best, that can equally please desire, and culture is an important dimension. Consciously designed, architecture itself is a cultural construct, manifesting and expressing human values. Cultures shaping unique spaces are reflected in the way spaces are shaped and affected by human involvements. Integrating culture in architecture, as Charles Jencks has suggested, is twofold, both a primary and final role of architecture. It is a combination of the expression of culturally-significant meanings and the exposition of feelings and ideas. An architect creates from a diverse range of influence and work with existing elements in a non-selfish manner.