Mobile
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Architecture An architectural orphan’s wish list for 2010
Posted By Manoj P Kesavan on Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 10:08 AM
What a year has it been! Unofficial/anecdotal figures show that more than 50 percent of all architects in Charlotte are without work (with a similar number probably reflected in the other building-related trades like engineering and construction).
I don’t know if architects have ever felt so forsaken or unloved in recent memory.
So, why don’t we emerge from the fetal position just long enough to wish for a better tomorrow? After all, what is the holiday season but a license to dream big — powered by excessive eating and eggnog — to lose oneself in fantasies about things that otherwise we might be too realistic to hope for?
• I wish, oh I wish, that this stupid recession would end soon, and that people would start building things again. (What wouldn’t we give to get back to doing those things that we used to constantly bitch and whine about for years ...)
• I wish that people would stop hyping “green building” and just start doing it. After all being green is the path, and not the goal of architecture. (Well, what is the goal of architecture — or any art for that matter? Hmmm ...)
• I wish that the media would find some other role model other than Howard Roark when they try to idealize (idolize?) architects. (Maybe architectural achievement can be other than an unsubtle show of manliness and heroism ...?)
• I wish that innocent architectural elements wouldn’t become the victims of cheap political games.
• And finally, I wish my Mom and Dad — Academics and Practice — would get back together again. Then maybe someday, American architectural practice would once again have a sense of purpose and a moral compass, and academic exercises a better grounding in reality. I hear that in many other countries where the families are together, kids like us have a less conflicted/guilt-ridden life — that they actually belong. (Well, they might still wear black, but guess that’s a genetic condition.)
Well, this is my quick, not-too-well-thought-out, highly incomplete list. What is yours? Whether you design livable structures or not, share it with everyone.
All buildings start as shared fantasies.
Speaking of Architecture, Forum
-
Arts review: Mario Botta: Architecture and Memory
Mar 12, 2014 -
Thresholds exhibit turns McColl Center into a funhouse
Feb 14, 2014 -
Bob Rucho says you can kiss his butt
Aug 29, 2013 - More »
Latest in Point 8
-
Object lessons
Oct 24, 2011 -
Meet the neighbors at UNC Charlotte
Sep 13, 2011 -
Art in a cart: Mobile Art Studio for Creative Disruption
Jul 28, 2011 - More »
More by Manoj P Kesavan
-
From Banksy to Banktown
Jul 28, 2010 -
Recession, architecture and Dope: A tale of two art shows
Jun 22, 2010 -
Save our libraries. Redux — the 'Crying Wolf' edition
Jun 2, 2010 - More »
