Discussions: Globalization | Saskia Sassen

Image Caption: Syringe dispensing machine, Europe, 1990-1992.

Image Source: Syringe dispensing machine, Europe, 1990-1992, developed by Lifeline Project Limited. https://collection.sciencemuseum. org.uk

10. Social Space | Bernard Tschumi | The Environmental Trigger | 1975

In the entire article “The Environmental Trigger”,1 Tschumi was trying to talk about his critique of equating architecture with socio-economic structure. He believed that the architecture itself may carry out some subversive cultural practices, but its final product may not be subversive.1 He thought that the spatial organization may modify the behavior of individuals or groups, but he was pessimistic about the fact that architecture itself can directly resolve urban conflicts. In general, architecture cannot directly change the socioeconomic structure of a society. And the sentence "the only possible architectural action of a revolutionary nature is rhetorical"1 also expressed Tschumi's negative attitude towards the event that architecture is trying to change the socio-economic structure. He believed that architecture had little to do with the socio-economic structure. The architectural space itself was neutral, but the architects gave the space a political attitude by giving the space an attitude name, which made a connection between the space and the socio-economic structure.1 Tschumi did not approve of this approach.

From my point of view, it is true that architecture itself cannot directly change the socioeconomic structure, but it is not meaningless to discuss the involvement of architecture in the socio-economic structure. The way that architecture intervenes in the social structure may not be directly creating a large, solid, or complex public space, but may start from a small intervention. The small intervention will trigger new public behaviors, stimulate new events, and achieve the purpose of affecting urban social life.

Although the article discussed the urban housing crisis, other conflicts in the city were also worthy of attention. For example, for the problem of homeless people, compared to building a large and complete homeless shelter, a small intervention was to adding handles in the middle of the benches on the street to prevent homelessness laying on the benches.2 This small intervention achieved the purpose of stopping homelessness from occupying the benches. Another example was about the problem of drug addicts.3 Countless drug users would share needles, leading to the spread of infections such as AIDS (HIV). To deal with this dangerous social phenomenon, the government in the United Kingdom tried to introduce a vending syringe dispensing kiosk.3 Each user was given a special token to work the kiosk. The kiosk distributed packets containing three syringes, one condom, and a new token. There was also a special section for the drug user to deposit used needles. The reference of this machine reduced the spread of HIV to some extent. These examples of small intervention may not directly change the social structure of the city, but to some extent alleviate the various urban conflicts.

1.Bernard Tschumi, “The Environmental Trigger,” in A Continuing Experiment: Learning and Teaching at the Architectural Association,ed. James Gowan (London: Architectural Press, 1975), 89–99. 2.Kaitlin Jock, "You Are Not Welcome Here: Anti-Homeless Architecture Crops Up Nationwide," Street Roots, accessed June 07, 2019, https://www.streetroots.org/news/2019/06/07/you-are-not-welcome-here-anti-homeless-architecture-crops-nationwide. 3.GV Stimson, “AIDS and Injecting Drug Use in the United Kingdom, 1987-1993: the policy response and the prevention of the epidemic,” Social science & medicine (1982), 41(5), 699–716, https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(94)00435-v. 25