2013-05-21T01:10:54-04:00 http://archinect.com/blog/article/58947960/a-socially-responsible-architect Lauren Trotter 2012-10-09T11:29:39-04:00 >2012-10-15T21:20:38-04:00 <p> Here's the optimistic conclusion to an otherwise saddening little essay about the inability of architects in our current professional climate to address social justice issues. &nbsp;The rest of the essay (and probably the rest of the book,&nbsp;<em>Out of Site: A Social Criticism of Architecture</em>&nbsp;by Diane Ghirardo) is worth a read.</p> http://archinect.com/blog/article/21453213/narrative Lauren Trotter 2009-09-08T11:30:04-04:00 >2011-11-24T09:05:52-05:00 <p>I am going to tell you a story.<br><br> Does that statement give you a small tingle of anticipation? Do you want to know how the story begins, what events form the story, what images transport you into it, what conflict arises, how the conflict is resolved? Imagine a group of people around a fire, spending long hours drinking wine and exchanging tales of past things and present things and future things. Imagine a movie theater at capacity, the light of the screen flickering over three hundred faces. Imagine a meeting in a church basement, a small huddle of women, each battling breast cancer and sharing their narrative about their sense of womanhood, their pain, their families. Imagine walking through an art museum. Imagine a friend with an anecdote about their crazy Saturday night.<br><br> If you don't have any sense of curiosity about the story, I might question your very humanity. Human beings love stories. More simply, we need narrative - I propose in the same way a tiger needs teeth o...</p>