Designing and architecting for transparency – really?
Manufacturing transparency in a very literal way - through architecture and design - is a theme with a very long history, predating in many ways the arrival of transparency in debates about institutions and governance.
(Photo: DanDeLuca)
There is a fine line between fake hype and real hope that architecting for transparency and integrity can make a difference – as some really fascianting recent developments show.
Transparency is and was a material quality in the first place and only subsequently became an aspirational attribute for institutions.
(Artwork “Hiding" int the City by Liu Bolin, photo: Michael Brands)
In the world of architecture the promise and practical possibilities of building transparency have fascinated theorists and practitioners alike for quite some time, giving us anything from glass-domes for parliaments and open restaurant kitchens to entire manufacturing plants that expose their assembly lines to the outside world and –of course – a seemingly endless string of corporate headquarters with transparent hulls, earning for example Chicago and its commercial centre the nickname of “transparent city”.
The accompanying critical debate ranges from dismissive depictions of built transparency as PR-led, purely symbolic window-dressing to more optimistic hopes that, done well, these transparency through design approaches could generate a real sense of citizen empowerment and public accountability.
I have begun to discuss this in a little more detail in the working paper on ambient accountability that launched this blog.
The thin line between gimmick and good in architected transparency has also caught up with what are some very current debates on corruption and integrity. Just a couple of days ago for example a major German daily paper juxtaposed on its frontpage breaking news about the German engineering giant Siemens being involved in a cartel and corruption scandal in Sao Paulo with what against this backdrop looks like a rather ironic side note on the breaking-ground ceremony for the new Siemens headquarters in Munich that involves a ground floor open to the public and ostensibly wants to convey the corporate values of transparency and openness to the world. Bad timing really.
More practically focused, there have been a string of design and architecture interventions in the public service area that seem to directly take aim at some of the most salient corruption risks.
A fascinating BBC report on Georgia, for example, describes the anti-corruption drive of the previous government and how stuffy, corruption-prone offices have given way to large communal service halls, and glass walled policy stations, in order to help clean up corruption in the administrative system.
(Copyright Georgiaabout)
Successful? It depends. Corruption in frontline service delivery has been significantly reduced in Georgia, something that these design interventions could possibly have contributed to. At the same time, other forms of corruption such as cronyism and collusion between business and political elites seems to be alive-and-kicking in the country.
Sure, design and architecture is not a magic bullet for saving the world, but perhaps it can make a small, yet important contribution. The funny thing is that we do seem to know next to nothing about what role design and architecture could really most effectively play in tackling corruption and promoting integrity.
We do not know much at all about actual impacts of things that are being tried out. We – at least this is what my trawls through this sphere have so far yielded – have not really in any deeper way tried to fire up our imagination about the range of things that are possible and could be tried out in this area.
A pity, given, for example what renowned architect David Adjaye had to say about one of the fastest growing regions for architecture and construction that also happens to face some of the most serious corruption risks in the world:
“Africa is having its Brasília moment, with about 25 countries building their capital cities, their infrastructures, their identities… when I say infrastructure, I mean it in the broadest sense—including not just roads, but the architecture of governance Architecture needs to be used in a way that helps them establish a relationship with their citizens”
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