By Tiziana Panizza Kassahun

We are altering the planet. Architecture is part of the altering process. How do we keep humans from manipulating everything? The world is changing so fast that we urge all decision makers to steer a path for humanity away from the worst of global climate change and social inequity.

The realm of human rights is the crucible for our global future. Designers should embrace them, not disown them. They will help us to design better interactions between humans and the natural world and better interactions between humans everywhere. I believe that human rights can become the most important and long-lasting effect of urbanization, because they pave the way for socioeconomic development at the global level. If neglecting of rights creep up in the urbanization, we lose our ability to survive. When rights die off, we die off. The ongoing challenge for urban growth is whether human rights can keep developing fast enough to sustain ever expanding urban populations. As long as this trend has been established, cities will grow ever larger and will become the inevitable future manifestation of a more just and prosperous humanity.

Today’s urban landscape is characterized by an unprecedented, accelerating, and complex mix of risks and opportunities. How we react to them will determine the world’s future. If inequality grows, we may see more roundups, raids, deportation, camps, secessions, while injustice will get worse and worse.

We cannot wait forever. The elevation of human rights to the forefront of urban design and planning would not just highlight the changes that are underway, but also help architecture to develop a new sense of a collective purpose based on a shared sense of destiny. When something terrible happens, we want to know what are the factors that lead up to it and whether there is something about it that we could spot beforehand. And by doing so we may head troubles off the pass.

Human rights cannot take place in a vacuum. Rather, they thrive in an environment that offers inspiration and the necessary framework for rights to thrive. We are in a phase where transformative change is necessary; this change opens windows for innovation and a new paradigm for architecture that is fully grounded in human rights. The emphasis on human rights and on community development is fundamental to the creation of innovative, fair, and imaginative cities. The implementation of human rights is a design challenge now, maybe the biggest one we currently face.