The one thing standing between us and achieving ‘built hospitality’ is our long love affair with the ‘Reference Man’. This outdated and ingrained manner of seeing and designing our built environment is holding us back from creating cities where everyone can find their place: cities for all.
But what does that really mean—for all? All people? Better yet, all living beings. We’re not quite there yet. How do we get there? A fundamental shift is of the essence.
‘Reference Man’: The Unrepresentative Archetype
The world over, cities have traditionally been designed by and for ‘Reference Man’. Remember those lectures in architecture school where you were taught about the Vitruvian Man or Le Corbusier’s Le Modulor? Those so-called perfect figures of ideal proportions. The overall message was that if you design for him, then you design for all.
But that’s not the case. Hyperfocusing on this 6ft-tall heterosexual able-bodied white man completely disregards women, children, the elderly, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, as well as most men—just about anyone who doesn’t fit into this “ideal”. So more or less all of us! That’s why a city for all means we need to shift away from this non-representative ‘universal’ reference.
The world over, cities have traditionally been designed by and for ‘Reference Man’. Hyperfocusing on this 6ft-tall heterosexual able-bodied white man completely disregards women, children, the elderly, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, as well as most men—just about anyone who doesn’t fit into this “ideal”.
Streetscapes beyond the traditional male commuter
Our streetscapes too are shaped around the ‘Reference Man’ lifestyle. He drives to work in the morning and drives home in time for dinner and to kiss his two kids goodnight. This archaic point of reference has led to our streets being designed around this traditional male commuter and his car.
While some of us are crowded on the sidewalk with strollers, grocery bags, suitcases, wheelchairs, and other bulky things, car drivers—’Reference Man’—have the luxury of generous lanes to take them to and from their very important 9-to-5s. Gender disaggregated statistics show that men travel almost double the distance by car compared with women. Women are more likely to walk, bike or take public transport.
Our streetscapes are shaped around the ‘Reference Man’ lifestyle and this archaic point of reference has led to our streets being designed around this traditional male commuter and his car.
Why don’t we design for them and everyone else who uses the street? Our streetscapes need to reflect the array of human uniqueness in age, culture, able-bodiedness, socio-economic background and so on. The demonstrated success of shared streets goes beyond cars, safety and emissions but shows the excellent design solutions that arise from looking beyond ‘Reference Man’.
From people-oriented to life-oriented design
‘Reference Man’ is also the poster child of industrialization and urbanization. He leads an urban lifestyle at odds with the natural world. A shift away from ‘Reference Man’ is actually also a step towards reconciling humanity with nature. And that’s exactly what built hospitality is: designing spaces for all living beings. And that goes beyond the human race.
Once we integrate plant and animal needs into our design processes and urban planning we can create healthy spaces in our cities where humans, flora and fauna can thrive. Where birds, bats, butterflies and ferns not to allow visualizations to win competitions, but actually an integral part of our buildings.
A shift away from ‘Reference Man’ is actually also a step towards reconciling humanity with nature. And that’s exactly what built hospitality is: designing spaces for all living beings. And that goes beyond the human race.
It means shifting from people-centric to life-centric. What would it mean for our cities if we invited and welcomed photosynthesizing, winged and six-legged organisms into our built environment?
Creating new references
There’s no doubt that designing for truly every human and every living creature all at once is hardly possible. It’s also simply overwhelming. But if we consciously make an effort to stop designing for the archaic ‘Reference Man’ and extend our idea of the notion of ‘all’, we can make significant steps towards ‘built hospitality’.
To begin, I challenge all designers to designate two non reference-man identities, two native plants and two local animals for every project we design. With each designer having a different focus, a patchwork of the inclusive city would begin to emerge.
This article was originally written for Dutch language deArchitect magazine in September 2021. Read the article in Dutch here.
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