ABSTRACT
In the global economy of goods and services, the architectural profession focuses on the design of goods — buildings and their contents — while paying little attention to the design of services, even though the latter often offers clients and communities greater value. The great design problems, instead, exist among those who cannot pay architects' fees and they largely extend beyond individual buildings to encompass entire districts, regions and systems. Public-interest design highlights an unmet need for architectural services. Architectural education needs to redefine itself accordingly. Law schools typically focus on skill development for the first half of a student's legal education and the diverse application of those skills in the second half. Architects have had a deservedly bad reputation for imposing a singular vision on the complexity that comprises communities, but a more human-centred, bottom-up, asset-based approach to community design remains in high demand.
