Context

“Good architecture should disappear – you should feel the context,” says Bangkok-based Thai architect, Duangrit Bunnag (Financial Times, Van Post, 1/12/11), “It should reflect a sense of place and culture.”

This is a notable quote. I feel the same way about the social architecture, if you will, in which well intentioned corporate, philanthropic, and governmental/NGO organizations are engaged. Sometime the programs become self-important instead of “disappearing” within the context of the environmental or societal problems being addressed.

There are corporations, organizations and the people in them doing noble things. But what is the program accomplishing? What is the context in which it is marketed or publicized? The ultimate measurements are the solutions to the environmental or societal problems being addressed. Did your program improve the lives of residents in a particularly challenged neighborhood or region? Were cultural parameters honored in the process? What did the place or ecosystem look like when you came to “save” it and what does it look like now?