Architecture and Communities Today

One of the roles society expects by architecture is the ability to shape communities, remodel environments, and influence behaviours in a predictable and positive way. Furthermore, architects claims for themselves the professional skills to express social imagination through their architectural ideas and design. During the early 1960s a new idea of space and community emerged: the concept of placemaking raised and activists and personalities theorised the slogan "cities for people" and not only for cars and shopping centres. There is a strong continuity between the theoretical principles and the design experiences on "architecture and community" defined since the early years of the 20th century up to the design experiments built in recent times. The nine projects hereafter presented are focused on the following topics: public space and memory, public parks and diverse communities, public space and city waterfronts. These projects represent the reactivation of social communities through design. It is a complex process tackled by public investments increasing the quality of inhabitants' life.