Suburban Nation - Andres Duany [86]
To understand the problem, one need only review the studio publication of any leading school. A reader can easily flip through a dozen projects before discovering one that is even vaguely recognizable as a building. For the incredulous, here is a typical passage from an Ivy League design publication, describing the plan for a single-family house:
These distortions elicit decipherment in terms of several virtual constructs that allow the house to analogize discourse and call for further elucidation. These constructs are continually motivated and frustrated by conflicts in their underlying schemata and the concrete form in which they are inscribed. They refer to the ideal or real objects, organizations, processes and histories which the house approximately analogizes or opposes. di
A typical drawing from the architectural schools: somehow, vaguely related to the act of building (we presume)
This text was written by a well-respected professor of first- and second-year graduate students. No illustration of the accompanying design is needed to demonstrate how the withdrawal into mysticism only contributes to the irrelevance of the profession.
Further, the entrenched academic embrace of deconstruction—not the style but the philosophy—has proved, with its distrust of objectivity, to be a short cut to nihilism and impotence among students, since there is no clear right or wrong and thus no trustworthy principles of design. In the studio, a deconstructive approach is often an excuse for sloppy reasoning, since carefully constructed arguments are regarded with suspicion.dj Still, deconstruction remains much in vogue as a way to feel superior to a society that is apparently not smart enough to value architects more highly.
Although engagement with society at large sometimes has the unpleasant effect of reminding architects of their limited power, it is the only way to begin to increase that power. Trained to be among the most wide-ranging problem-solvers in the world, architects need to rededicate themselves to their communities, whether those communities seem to want them or not. Those few architects who have made consistent efforts to engage the public will insist that it is indeed a rewarding endeavor.
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WHAT IS TO BE DONE
THE VICTORY MYTH; THE ROLE OF POLICY; WHAT PUBLIC SERVANTS
CAN DO AT THE MUNICIPAL, COUNTY, REGIONAL, STATE,
AND FEDERAL LEVELS; WHAT ARCHITECTS CAN DO;
WHAT CITIZENS CAN DO; THE ARMCHAIR URBANIST
Civil courage in an ecological age means not only demanding social justice, but also aesthetic justice and the will to make judgements of taste, to stand for beauty in the public arena and speak out about it.
—JAMES HILLMAN AND MICHAEL VENTURA,
WE’VE HAD A HUNDRED YEARS OF PSYCHO-
THERAPY, AND THE WORLD’S GETTING WORSE
(1993)
THE VICTORY MYTH
While it has been an uphill struggle, there are many successes worth celebrating in the fight against sprawl. Federal agencies and local civic groups are promoting smart growth. Architects are creating pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented neighborhood plans. Traffic engineers are rewriting their once-destructive standards. Planners are throwing out their sprawl-generating land-use codes. Economists are identifying the real costs of suburban growth and recording the financial success of new traditionally designed neighborhoods. A new breed of developer is emerging, committed to building community, not just product. Environmentalists are promoting urban infill as a