The Achilles Heel of Cultural Hegemony

I dream the body democratic

An Escape

The construction of democratic space is essential to avoid a false narrative in which citizens, presumed to be “free,” are flattened and reduced to a flock to be pastured.

Democratic space completely changes the narration of space fostered by traditionalist regression, characterized by the architect who knows best, self-made entrepreneurs, and generational wealth, indifferent to public interest but needing symbolic, protective skyscraper fortresses.

Democratic space creates the possibility of living in environments “shaped” by a belief in the “constructability” of a “life in common,” symbolized by spatial systems such as inverted catenary arches, designed with structural reciprocity in which the forces “lean” on each other yet remain self-supporting.

 

The Colorful Prince bets on structural reciprocity, as the primary design criteria of form  to narrative nothing less than a kind of “civic spirit,” a common feeling and agreement in concrete form. Physical form that represents the transformation of social constructs such as family, freedom, play, and sexual equality.

From this perspective, democratic space is the spatial narration of a people as they build an identity. A presentation of themselves in public where legitimacy and validation of architectural form is derived from a People demonstrating their ability to project their democratic ideals into the environment.

Emotional involvement must animate the narrative and mobilize a reciprocal process between identity and representation that produces a “People.”

MOLM Structure of Reciprocity 2010 Noted Yellow DH

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