Isn't fussing about the appearance of buildings a right-wing preoccupation?īefore the Modernist revolution, it was accepted by people of both political sides that public buildings like railway stations, post offices, libraries, schools and swimming pools should be celebratory and generous rather than minimal and mean-spirited. The problem is that the profession doesn't realise it's stopped caring enough about the experience of the ordinary everyday passer-by. I'm only saying that buildings should have enough care, complexity and emotional intelligence built into them that the people who use them and pass them by every day are nourished by them.Īre you saying that architects don't care?Īrchitects certainly do care deeply, otherwise they wouldn't undertake years of training, work long hours and take on a huge amount of responsibility for relatively little pay. Of course every new building shouldn't strain to look iconic. ![]() So you're saying that all new buildings have to look iconic? (Likely to be) Frequently Asked Questions Whether or not you agree, this feels like a moment for us all to break out. But the campaign belongs to anyone and won’t go anywhere without the involvement of millions of others.įor too long, architecture has been stuck talking to itself. Heatherwick Studio has paid for a team of three people for two years to get this moving. It’s a 10-year global initiative to change the way that people think about buildings and cities. These are all ideas at the heart of the Humanise campaign, launching this month. Super-charged with public funding (yes, taxpayers’ money) invested in initiatives like the Urban Rooms Network, so we have one architecture centre in every town or city, not just 15 brave and lonely pioneers fighting for survival, as they do right now. This debate should be hosted in places where the public can get excited and get involved. In this public conversation, architecture will be able to take centre stage in a way that hasn’t happened for generations. If we could now start a national conversation about the outsides of buildings, inspiring the public to see with fresh eyes and demand better, I’m convinced they will ask for the kind of meaningful, interesting buildings we are all dying to make. Le Corbusier gestures over his proposals for a renconstructed Paris Our issue is that the public has become completely desensitised to an endless wave of soulless buildings at the same time as feeling utterly powerless to affect what is happening around them. The public has become de-sensitised to an endless wave of soulless buildings And if there’s a real debate going on, most leaders listen to the public. But over the years I’ve learned an eternal truth. There has been a lot of talk in this publication about the marginalisation of architects and their influence over what gets built. It’s largely down to us and the way we have allowed ourselves to design buildings for the last 100 years. We are the advocates and opinion formers – the people doing the drawings. But I don’t think we can shift all responsibility off ourselves. Our hands are tied by developers and planners and building control and extremely tight budgets. Professor David Halpern’s pioneering study on mental health and the built environment showed that the longer we study building design the more we tend to disagree with the public about what is attractive – until there is literally no correlation between the two.Īs building designers, we can feel beleaguered and misunderstood. Over the past century, the building design profession has become progressively distanced from public opinion. This silent sense of disconnection from the public isn’t new. Over the past century, the building design profession has become progressively distanced from public opinion Let’s be honest, we don’t know how most of our real customers feel. On the people who walk past the things that we create, week after week, year after year.Ĭlients don’t ask for it. In reality, there is almost no data about the impact of building design on the passers-by. And, as many business leaders argue, you can’t change what you can’t measure. But, astonishingly, this aspect of architecture is almost entirely unmeasured. They are the walls of society’s public living rooms. The outsides of these buildings are the backdrops of our lives. ![]() So boring buildings are a crucial piece in the environmental jigsaw.
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