A few months ago I was on a panel in New York city with a bunch of well known architects and architectural critics. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun. We talked about some big urban design issues. Afterward, there was a dinner where guests had the opportunity to stand and explain to the group what they felt was important in the world of architecture. Everyone learned a lot. I left feeling energized because these people cared enough to make profound differences in the quality of the built environment around them.

That experience, unfortunately, was only able to exist amongst a very narrow segment of the population. Why? Architecture and urban design are capital intensive activities that demand education, experience, talent, and skill to do well. Where does that leave the rest of us? Are we left out of the process when it comes to determining the form and nature of the built world around us? Of course not. Whether critics might like the results or not, people make decisions all the time that influence the way cities take shape.

One of my favourite blogs is BldgBlog. The editor there wrote with great insight on why architecture publications are losing their influence over the general public:

Being an architectural critic means writing about architecture – even writing about Le Corbusier and Toyo Ito, sure – but that means writing about architecture in its every manifestation: whether it's built or not, designed by an architect or not, featured in a videogame or not, found anywhere other than inside a novel or not, whether it's still intact or not – even whether it's on planet Earth.

If a critic can get people to realize that the everyday architectural world of garages and malls and bad haunted house novels is worthy of architectural analysis – and that architecture is even exciting to discuss – then maybe the trade journals can get some of their subscribers back. At the very least, it's worth a try.
Even if that means saying: Gee, the new Home Depot sucks.

I like this idea. It is my experience that most people have what could rightly be called sophisticated ideas about architecture but most lack the means to express them. The architectural profession -- and local government -- have to do more to aid that expression. It is an opportunity that we ignore to the detriment of everyone. Is the OAA listening?

1. I live in a house built in 1949 and the windows in the living room and the dining rooms are floor to ceiling and some six feet wide. When we first moved in sime 5 years ago, my wife and I thought this is goign to be expensive to install window coverings but as the days wore on we found the bare window offered us a fresh perspective on the yard and the day both at night and in the daytime. When winter arrived the first snowfall felt like it was indoors and amazing.Christmas that year was better for the sights we were afforded. My point is we discover the meaning and importance of architecture. Good article Robert.

   Posted by  on  08/29  at  08:09 AM

2. A few months ago, I read an article about a major Aboriginal artist in the Globe & Mail. A notable quote from an American dealer: “Most art buyers are autograph collectors.”

   I wonder if that mentality doesn’t permiate many aspects of our aesthetic lives? I’m by no means an educated person regarding architecture, but the small reading I’ve done seems to indicate that a major theme in contemporary architecture has to do with stars, big names. Almost as if, decision makers & buyers lack the self-confidence to make their own choices based on their own criteria & judgements about what they want and need; they differ to the star system for affirmation.

   I agree that some sort of education process would be useful, if for no other reason than to give consumers of architectural products (and all artistic products for that matter) more confidence in taking a chance on the new, untried or positively innovative. If people do not become more sophisticated, more informed consumers, braver, we’ll be stuck where we are now or in a worse place, with an increasingly impoverished aesthetic environment that does nothing except teach us how to homogenize our feelings to the lowest common denominator while we dumb down our responses.

   ...edN

   Posted by Ed Nixon  on  08/29  at  10:08 AM

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