The Role of Social Engagement in the Development of Significant Architectural Objects

Abstract

Abstract Social engagement and public participation is perceived as emerging social concern and coincidental annoyance for architects during the design and building processes. In the development of objects of public importance, especially those of ambiguous assessments, the knowledge of participatory methods, institutional support options, and knowledge of public relations and media literacy becomes an important element in contemporary architectural practice. Latvia’s legislation ensures standard public participation procedure in a unified system within the attribute of “significant architectural object”. This study attempts to recognize the origin and structure of multi-layered topic when the involvement of a wider public is applied in the development of architectural objects. It collects generally known major failures and maps component attributes within three stages. The Conclusion presents several observations on main research question, – how the development of notable architectural objects in the local market is de facto affected by engagement of wider public.