Reveille! Earth calling Architecture!
Many of the blog entries here don’t truly merit the title ‘Thinking about Architecture’ – they are reactions to projects, news items, or are about projects we’re working on.
But, starting here, I’m going to begin trying to write some more general posts on architecture. As these will hopefully have some coherence, I’m keeping them here, to be viewed as a set, although they don’t have to be read in order.
Architecture, and most architects, are lost in a parallel world that the profession carefully built for itself after the second world war. It’s an endlessly fascinating world, created by clever and creative people, but ultimately, it is a safe place, a place where the buffets of the world and the humiliations of architectural life are folded into a comforting story. As Tafuri says;
To ward off anguish by understanding and absorbing its causes would seem to be one of the principal ethical exigencies of bourgeois art. (Manfredo Tafuri - Architecture and Utopia, 1979)
Of course, many attempts have been made, down the years, to smash holes in the walls, to let reality in, but these are always patiently patched and prettied by the general mass of the profession, reacting either with hostility or with mollification, both born of fear.
These notes are my own attempt to open lines of communication between planet architecture and planet earth.
Comment and feedback welcome!