Publicness as an architectural value

Abstract

That architecture should in some way serve the public good is an idea that mostly goes unquestioned. The corresponding idea that we know who the public is and what its good consists of largely falls apart in the face of even a little probing. This paper investigates the concept of the public inherited from the Enlightenment, its fate in recent times, and possibilities for its reinvention. The argument then goes on to suggest ways in which architecture can have relatively more or less of the quality of publicness.

Keywords:

• public good
• Habermas
• counterpublics
• architecture

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tom Spector

TOM SPECTOR

School of Architecture, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Tom Spector received his PhD in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and is now a professor of architecture at Oklahoma State University. He is also a licensed architect in the United States. In 2011 he became a life fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University. His prime area of research is in architectural ethics. In 2001 he published The Ethical Architect: The Dilemma of Contemporary Practice and more recently was the co-author of How Architects Write. Spector is the managing editor of the new journal Architecture Philosophy. Information about the journal and access to Volume One can be found at http://ojs.library.okstate.edu/osu/index.php/jispa/issue/current