Alastair Parvin
THE PROFIT FUNCTION Alastair Parvin
As governments have looked increasingly to private markets for the provision of public infrastructure, community architecture and - in particular - housing, we have all signed a profound contract between private gain and public good. The Profit Function is an enquiry into the dynamics of that contract; the way that this seemingly simple economic shift might have fundamentally altered the way that buildings, cities and public environments are designed, and rendered almost superficial many of the cultural and theoretical ideas we have previously associated with architecture.
THE PROFIT FUNCTION
Based on the premise that profit has become perhaps the most prolific design project in history, but one with no corresponding theory or manifesto, this paper begins to construct a basic theory for the design of profit; looking for spatial patterns and principles, and searching for hidden costs. What is exposed is not ‘bad design’, as it is often perceived, but the precise opposite: the systematic success of a design logic whose value systems can then be compared to our own.
2008