On April 9th a debate was held at the Barbican in London on Ethics in Architecture. The panel was to consist of Sean Griffiths of FAT (replacing Massimiliano Fuksas), Charles Jencks, Winy Maas, Zaha Hadid and myself. Zaha pulled out a few days before and was replaced by Patrik Schumacher. Then the day of the event he pulled out (She was on a last minute trip to Dubai, He was in DC) leaving a junior architect to represent.
Last week a debate unfolded on the Huffington post when I suggested that in a time of economic upheaval perhaps we should look at the next steps in the future of the architectural profession. Is it more community focused? more sustainable? more fiscally responsible? more humane? or will is stay the same?
Francis Anderton’s response (which she also posted on KCRW)
What was most interesting is to see how personally a number of architects took this (see twitter/blogs). Rather than seeing this as an opportunity to debate the future of our profession they seem to want to protect the status quo.
Anyway my follow-up hopefully clarifies what I mean by an architecture of excess.
I've been delinquent in adding my huff post column to this blog. Here are the three most recent pieces. While the AIG and school modernization posts got the most attention I personally think the visit to Buckminster Fullers home in Carbondale, Il was the most interesting.
Dear Obama, Enact a 'Greed to Need' Tax This April.
Posted March 17, 2009 | 02:34 PM (EST)
Read Post
Bucky Done Gone: The dome home in decay.
Posted March 5, 2009 | 11:20 AM (EST)
Read Post
Senate to Schools: Drop Dead
Posted February 11, 2009 | 03:05 PM (EST)
Slashing $20B from school modernization is not a compromise
Read Post
