Geeta Mehta on Social Justice

Architecture and urban design are social acts, so they must have a social purpose. Slash and burn neo-liberal economic models of development are segregating and excluding the poor in the United States and across the world. A sole focus on financial capital is depleting and exploiting the social and ecological capital of communities and the global commons are at risk. Design professionals have the unique ability to visualize and articulate alternate realities and rally public interest and financial support to realize these. Designer impresarios took the initiatives to build cathedrals in the middle-ages, Garden Cities in the 19th century and Modernism in the 20th Century. Is it time for us to put on our activist hats again and build for social and ecological justice now?