eyes and ears - hands and mouth
Architects are communicators. We express ourselves verbally and dimensionally; however, as communicators, we must also have the capacity to observe our world, listen to many interests, and synthesise this into our own source of wisdom and inspiration. In other words, we must find meaning from our experiences and add substance to our expression. History has shown that not all proposed architectural solutions have proven beneficial. As a visual profession, architecture has the power to ‘show’ people what is possible. This is part of the alchemy of architecture and ideally, it is a response to and a reflection upon our connection with our local community.
I find that Architects’ biggest challenge is connecting the profession to our communities and successfully relating to the local human condition. In 1925, Le Corbusier proposed the Plan Voisin for Paris. The modernist vision, to which Le Corbusier greatly contributed, lead to the building of St. Louis's disastrous Pruitt-Igoe social housing project. In a similar spirit of innovation, well respected Frank Lloyd Wright proposed Broadacre City (1934-58) where deurbanisation was the answer to a better way of life. At the beginning of the 21st century, we are faced with the disequilibrium of suburban sprawl and environmental degradation.
From the concrete to the virtual: the power of the image is competing with the once powerful presence of the built environment. The media for communicating ideas have evolved. Take for example, the power of television, movies, and the internet. Images of the future from Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon, The Jetsons in the 1960s, movies such as Ridley Scott’s 1982 film, Blade Runner, and the city of Coruscant from George Lucas’ Star Wars II in 2002 are full of social commentary. Are these images becoming self-fulfilling prophecies? Are these the societies that we want to construct? Architect’s have a role to play in proposing healthy solutions that respond to social concerns, local economics, and the environment.
In the 1960s and 70s, the utopian future of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes was contrasted by films such as Michael Anderson’s, Logan’s Run in 1976 and Richard Fleischer’s, Soylent Green in 1973. I believe that the challenge for Architects is to participate in an accretive architecture that repairs existing built conditions and helps a community to evolve within its cultural and historical context. The era of tabula rasa is over. We cannot afford to throw our buildings away and start again. The future success of cities will depend upon how well they adapt their existing conditions to ecological and democratic practises.
Through our skills of observation and our talents for visual creation, Architects are very well positioned to supply healthy ideas and images to the social discourse. This is a public role that Architects can continue to play and as such, it must also be a democratic role so that ideas can be openly vetted and understood. This does much more than improve the ‘image’ of the architectural profession; our thoughtful intervention can contribute to the meaning and experience of civilisation.
14 March 2005
Plan Voisin for Paris, 1925, Le Corbusier
The vision of the zoned modernist city built with
standardized industrial construction
Plan Voisin for Paris, 1925, Le Corbusier
Economically 'efficient', yet shown to be an urban
disaster around the world.
Visions of the Future:
Walking City, 1964, Ron Herron
Is that a pedestrian city or a machine oriented city?
Expo67, 1967, Montréal
An era where everything was possible and the future
would see high-tech cities rebuilt over established city
footprints/patterns.
Expo67, 1967, Montréal
One of the principal themes was efficient people moving
from one mode or scale of transportation to another.
US Pavilion, Expo67, Montréal, Buckminster Fuller
Geodesic dome over Manhattan, 1962, Buckminster Fuller
Would domes save humanity or would it be better to save
the planet for humanity?
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