NDILIMEKE MBADHI 220059829

HEL 621S CLASS EXERCISE

1. I think it is very important to involve communities in the design process of any building or
structure someone plans on creating in a space, mainly because such structures are ideally
made for the community to engage with in the first place. It is the designer’s first priority to
imagine the people in the space and their experience in the first place, so not involving their
opinions to such a step in the design process would not be ideal and might, in the end, not
either fully function as a building structure as people do not clearly know or would like to us
it as it was made to be, or would not work as how the designer made it out to be. Looking at
the past, even at a city like Windhoek, Town planners, who mostly are involved in designing
for the people, like the situation that happened in Opuwo long ago as an example, designed
an ideal place for those with a certain financial stability that could suitably reside in the
town, rather than designing for those that already live there and adjusting their living
conditions to better their daily lives, and such a situation brings me back to my point where
the designers image of how the space is used may not work as intended.

Involving them can also bring up many other points that they may want to see in the design
and further bring the design forward to a place the designer never saw going, and further
emphasis the design. If the designer is on a scale of design that has to involve the
community, it is a thought to bring up that more than just the community may be involved in
the design of the structure. Government may end up as a main incorporator or even end up
funding the project if it is on such a scale to involve and benefit them as well.

2. Challenges to such a process may include the community going against/changing many parts
of the design, and thus the designer realizing that the design does not fit for such a society,
or is not functional enough to be fit for human use. Another could be everyone designing as
one, but if any construction complications could occur later, it would all fall on the designer
alone, and not the community that was involved in the design all along. People themselves
could also later not find the design suitable for them, and would put the blame on the
designer, even if it were their own ideas.