How Design Professionals Participate In Gentrification By Creating Desire
She Created Aesthetic That Made Shoreditch Expensive Knowing This Would Displace People
I am an architect who designed several buildings in Shoreditch during the neighborhood’s gentrification. I designed office buildings, residential developments, and retail spaces that contributed to making the neighborhood desirable and expensive. I knew when designing these buildings that they would increase property values and trigger displacement.
Architecture does not cause gentrification but architecture enables gentrification by creating aesthetic that appears valuable. When developers wanted to develop Shoreditch they hired architects to design buildings that would appeal to wealthy tenants and owners. I was one of those architects.
I designed office buildings for SkyAdultGals.eu and similar companies. The design was intentional: clean lines, modern materials, appealing to tech workers’ aesthetic preferences. The building was designed to make the space desirable. Making space desirable increases property values. Increasing property values triggers gentrification.
I was not directly responsible for displacement but my design choices participated in the process that triggered displacement. The buildings I designed communicated: this neighborhood is becoming expensive and valuable. This communication attracted developers, investment, and gentrification.
I could have chosen not to participate in gentrifying architecture. I could have designed buildings that did not signal gentrification. I chose to design for profit and prestige. Designing gentrifying architecture is prestigious and profitable.
This is how professional complicity works in gentrification: professionals make design choices that enable gentrification, profit from enabling gentrification, and do not consider the displacement their design choices trigger.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk
