Socializing Architecture: Top-Down / Bottom-Up

Situated at the intersection of architecture, art, public culture, and political theory, Socializing Architecture urges architects and urbanists to intervene in the contested space between public and private interests, to design political and civic processes that mediate top-down and bottom-up urban resources, and to mobilize a new public imagination toward more just and equitable urbanization. Drawing on decades of lived experience, Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman use the San Diego-Tijuana border region as a global laboratory to address the central challenges of contemporary urbanization: increasing social and economic inequality, dramatic migratory shifts, explosive urban informality, climatic disruption, thickening border walls, and the decline of public thought.

Socializing Architecture follows Spatializing Justice (Cruz and Forman, 2022). It is organized into two main sections—essays and projects—and continues to build a compelling case for architects and urban designers to do more than design buildings and physical systems. Through analysis and diverse case studies, the authors show architects and urbanists how to disrupt exclusionary policies that produce public crises and, instead, enact new political and economic strategies that promote a more equitable and convivial architecture.