Chapter 1 | The Object of Design Called 'Judgment'—From the Parks and Barrios of Caracas (Part 2)

In the first part, based on my experience walking through the Parque del Este and the barrios of Caracas, I wrote about how architectural criticism and landscape criticism each failed at different points.

Even so, people were being made to choose how to behave in those places.

In this second part, I will delve a little more carefully into the true nature of that experience of 'being made to choose'.

The reason I decided to call it 'Judgment'

There was something common to both the park and the barrio.

It is that before people could understand the meaning or grasp the relationships, their behavior was already being directed.

I decided to call this 'Judgment'.

However, this 'judgment' is different from so-called 'decision-making' or 'subjective choice.' It is closer to the feeling that rather than choosing after thinking for oneself, one has already chosen by the time one realizes it.

In the fields of architecture and environment, concepts such as 'affordance' (the property of a space that invites human action) and 'habitus' (the tendency for social experience to be inscribed in the body) have been used to explain similar phenomena. However, the former focuses on the fit between space and body, while the latter assumes the accumulation of learning over time.

'Judgment' exists on a slightly different layer than those. It is a more immediate dimension—a physical reaction required from the moment one enters a space—that precedes the establishment of spatial adaptation or social learning.

Where can one stop? At what speed should one walk? In which direction is it okay to look, and which direction should be avoided? Where is the line one must not cross?

These are not things one thinks about and judges; by the time one realizes it, the body has already chosen.

The difference in 'Judgment' between the park and the barrio

I would like to pause here for a moment, but the nature of 'judgment' was quite different between the park and the barrio.

In the park, there was plenty of room for judgment. The adjustment of behavior was loose, a soft guidance to the extent of 'somehow it's hard to stay here long' or 'it's hard to walk in that direction'.

In the barrio, the room for judgment was extremely narrow. Behavior was demanded with an intensity where 'a mistake immediately connects to danger.' There was no time to learn and no room to experiment.

The form and intensity are completely different. But in both places, something that had not been sufficiently handled by existing design language was exposed.

I would like to call this commonality the 'conditions of judgment'.

What is 'incomplete design'?

So, can those 'conditions' be an object of design?

I would like to use the term 'incomplete design' here, but this does not mean that the design has ended prematurely. It is neither a failure of design nor a deficiency in design.

It refers to a state where conditions of 'judgment' exist that remain unexplained even after architectural or landscape-based analysis.

It is 'incomplete' in the sense that objects not yet sufficiently addressed by existing design languages are exposed within the space.

In the park, this appeared as 'surplus that cannot be recovered architecturally.' In the barrio, it appeared as 'differences that cannot be fully encompassed by landscape.' Both exist outside of our current vocabulary.

Caracas was a place where that state of incompleteness was relatively clearly visible. However, similar things must be happening in other cities and in everyday places as well.

What I want to do from here on

I do not intend to close this 'incomplete design' as a conclusion.

What does it mean to rethink the conditions of 'judgment' as an object of design? I will attempt to repeatedly verify this and rewrite it little by little while walking through different cities and places.

I think I will continue to write while unable to express it well. But I feel that proceeding while honestly saying 'I cannot express it well' is more sincere to this question.

I will write again from the next location.