On the other hand, while I completely see the value of trusting a well-conducted market study, I also see how important is it to think outside of the box, and detach from the dictation from market trends. By this, I mean, to see building a community from a "social" point of view. To be clear, the fuzzy word here "social", or in a more abstract word "sociology", means to sit back and look at people, embrace culture, and use logic and common sense (even feelings) to figure out how to make communities. In the end a community, for our users, is somewhere we want people to have fond memories of or even call home.
In this article (divided into two parts), I'd like to present some of my humble observation and thoughts on market-driven and social-driven in terms of making communities, no matter it is in rural or urban setting. Here "market-driven" I mean "real-estate value driven", while "social-driven" is "to let community naturally grow and involve over time, and give planning guidance from sociological (including political) point of view."
Maybe it's because I didn't grow up in a Capitalist culture and society, maybe it's because I appreciate living in cities that are thousand years old, maybe it's because of my academic trained thinking through social and historical lens, I am skeptical about becoming Extreme Market-Driven (EMD) when it comes down to making communities. I illustrated a few differences between extreme market-driven and a healthy dose of social driven.
1. For the extreme market-driven, immediate economic return is the highest priority. When we add a healthy dose of social-driven thinking, we understand there's beauty in letting the community grow and build on itself over time. Let the social groups figure each other out through functions and conflicts, and eventually a unique and complex local culture will form and blossom. When a strong sense of belonging and stability is established, the community is mature and livable. This kind of community holds social and economic value for longer term.
2. When we are extremely market driven, we "implant" a project without taking care of the boarder. You must be familiar with this sight: car dealership scattered along a highway, and they seem lonely and absurd. The reason that these car dealerships have become the eyesore along the highway is because it's appearance is harsh and out of context - there's no transition between the project site and the surroundings, socially or visually. When we only care about the economic return of our own project, we lose sight of the context - the social texture and spatial configuration of the city or region that we are in. A wise architect once advised that if you want to see if an architecture is well-designed, then you need to see how it handles its corners. Likewise, when we want to build a healthy community or urban planning project, we need to consider how it fits in or even socially positively influence the dynamic of the area - we need to carefully design the boarder where the new meets the old.
3. When we are extremely
market-driven, we copy other people's successful formulas, and give up being
creative and original. There is no need to say more, when we are so afraid
to fail, we hold on extremely tight to what have worked for other people. We
forget to learn about own place and people, or to invent what we like and will
solely work for own needs. When we learn from successful real estate cases, we
need to look further than just the economic return. Instead, we ought to dig
deeper to think more critically: is this genuinely a well thought-out project
and gives great contribution to the society, or is it a quick fix that will
wither after a couple of decades, as oppose to those that will last for
generations and hundreds of years.
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