“These types of projects are of vital importance because they seek to reverse social, economic, urban, and political instability, providing organized attention to community needs and creating built platforms that serve as a bridge between the intrapersonal and intra-institutional scales.” Excerpt from the project description of the Community Development Center / OCA + BONINI
Since 2008, World Social Justice Day has been observed every February 20 to support and promote the international community's efforts to achieve sustainable development, poverty eradication, the promotion of full employment and decent work, universal social protection, gender equality, and access to social well-being and justice for all. According to the United Nations, “Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations," representing the core of its mission to promote development and human dignity.
Within this pursuit of social justice, the field of architecture has generated built proposals that seek to promote the fulfillment of basic rights and foster equality through the discipline: buildings constructed to assist vulnerable communities in education and healthcare, provide social protection for migrants, refugees, and displaced populations, foster connection, community expression, and social cohesion, and alleviate inequalities of various kinds. Although from a humanitarian standpoint these types of buildings should not have to exist—since marginalization, exclusion, and inequality should not exist, and everyone should have access to social well-being—the lack of guaranteed rights and safety in diverse populations has led many professionals, whether independently or driven by organizations or state policies, to begin generating architectural responses to try to reverse these situations of social and economic instability.
