FAKE NEWS 5 ARTICLES ADDRESSING A THEME
5 ARTICLES ADDRESSING A THEME
ISSUE #1 Robin Chatwin CRITICAL PRACTICE MANIFESTO 3964 WORDS 15.05.2017
POST-TRUTH ARCHITECTURE
CONTENTS
1
THE POST-TRUTH ERA
2
INTERPRETING TRUTH
3
THE POST-TRUTH MINDSET
4
FAKE NEWS / REAL ESTATE
5
MANIFESTO BIBLIOGRAPHY
Above [fig 1]: Boris Johnson's post-truth pledge postered on the side of a bus.
POST-TRUTH ADJECTIVE RELATING TO OR DENOTING CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH OBJECTIVE FACTS ARE LESS INFLUENTIAL IN SHAPING PUBLIC OPINION THAN APPEALS TO EMOTION AND PERSONAL BELIEF
1. THE POST-TRUTH ERA THE OXFORD DICTIONARY'S WORD OF THE YEAR 2016 IS 'POST-TRUTH'.
A few days after the announcement of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, Arron Banks, Ukip’s largest donor and the main funder of the Leave.EU campaign1, spoke of how he knew that facts would not win the referendum. “Facts don’t work and that’s it. The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally”.2 However, ‘emotional connections’ were based on myth: fictitious claims that could never be followed through had more weight than any fact. Nine months on, the image of fully fledged lies printed on a bus is still surreal [Fig.1] as is the knowledge that this is the most effective method of canvassing. This yarn spun by the Leave campaign has unsurprisingly never manifested. The discourse of the debate was largely separated from the very thing it was debating [Fig.2]. The dangers are clear; as fiction flirts with real life, critical issues are increasingly decided from an emotional standpoint, rather than a rational assessment of the reality. From the potential economic impact of the referendum to Trump’s climate change denial; post-truths are polluting the platforms on which humanity must make crucial decisions about its future. However, perhaps this phenomenon is nothing new. As an editorial on the issue in The Economist points out, “it is hardly as though politics has ever been synonymous with truthfulness”3. Looking further into history, it is even conceivable that this
DEBATE PLEDGES
REFERENDUM ON PLEDGES
REALISE PLEDGES HAD NO GROUNDING IN REALITY [Fig 2]: The fundamental cycle of democracy is broken.
juncture is part of a wider drift. Noted by political philosopher Leo Strauss, modern liberalism contains an intrinsic tendency towards severe relativism.4 Is ‘fake news’ not just the hyperbolization of modernity? As individual beliefs slowly trumped the needs of society, have media and mindsets now mirrored the shift? Architectural journalist and writer, Jack Self, describes current condition as an over sensitivity of the present.5 Through our ability and desire to capture and analyse all news, we experience our lives with the same detachment as the camera lens. Lobotomised from reality and falling into a fictional world of over-shared and under-refined information, commentary and debate succumbs into inertia. Indeed, the sudden prevalence of the post-truth world does seem seismic. Although there were political lies before, they “used to imply that there was a truth”. Now, “growing number of politicians and pundits simply no longer care”.6 They deal in insinuation; or what Stephen Colbert, an American comedian, calls ‘truthiness’ that ‘feels right’.7 Since the referendum, the government has battled to enforce the result based on a handful of shadowy pledges, without any immediate understanding of what leaving the EU will truly entail other than 'Brexit means Brexit'. The consequences from this post-truth referendum are messy, but not as chaotic as the hazy lurk of the post-truth world we begin to inhabit. 1. Katherine Viner, "How technology disrupted the truth", The Guardian 12 Jul. 2016 <https:// www.theguardian.com/ media/2016/jul/12/howtechnology-disrupted-thetruth.> [Accessed 25 Mar. 2017]
3. Editorial, "Yes, I’d lie to you" The Economist, 10th September 2016. <economist.com/news/ briefing/21706498dishonesty-politics-nothingnew-manner-which-somepoliticians-now-lie-and> [Accessed 15 May. 2017]
2. Unknown, "Leave donor plans new party to replace Ukip – possibly without Farage in charge", The Guardian, 29 Jun. 2016, <https://www.theguardian. com/politics/2016/jun/29/ leave-donor-plans-newparty-to-replace-ukipwithout-farage> [Accessed 25 Mar. 2017]
4. Thomas L. Pangle, History of Political Philosophy, 3rd ed., Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987, p907. 5. Jack Self, "Remembering the Present", The Real Review, REAL Foundation, Autumn 2016, p. 51. 6. Editorial, "Yes, I’d lie to you" The Economist 7. Ibid.
2. INTERPRETING TRUTH CAN THERE BE SUCH THING AS 'TRUTH' IN ARCHITECTURE?
In his acceptance speech on winning the Pritzker Prize, Aldo Rossi revealed the importance of ‘truth’ in his work: “SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH IS MY PROFESSION, I HAVE ENDED UP LOVING ARCHITECTURE” 1 The distinction between truth and lie is generally assumed to be a binary and objective view. However, is mapping truth onto architecture, an inherently qualitative and equivocal field, even possible? Objective truth is perhaps most naturally attempted in the “matter of … representation” that means ‘this’. Here examined by academic Jeff Malpas, he concurs this is somewhat difficult in an architectural context. Assertoric claims set upon a building are unsurprisingly uncommon and Malpas highlights how they often “turn out to be fairly banal”. Taking Norman Foster’s use of glazing in the Reichstag dome as a symbol of the ‘transparency’ of democracy as an example, he shows how declarative assertions on paper do not translate quite so powerfully into singular elements in construction. If this is the truth, then it is a boring one.2 However representation is not always so explicit. More prevalent is an idea of suggested intent (and its comparative reality). In Peter Buchanan’s description of Zaha Hadid’s Innovation Tower in Kowloon, he talks of how the promises of the external “dynamically fluid form” bares no relation internally. “ON ENTERING THE BUILDING, YOU ARE CONFRONTED BY GRAND LONG ESCALATORS THAT CLIMB TO … A BLANK WALL ACROSS A CRAMPED SPACE. WHAT AN ANTICLIMAX.”3 The claims of the form tell a wholly different story to the truth of the building - but, is this untruthful? Or is it merely bad architecture? Despite the logic in comparing the intent and actuality of design, there is still a disparity in the objective interrogation for truth in architecture and the subjective reality of it. In Steen Eiler Rasmussen’s Experiencing Architecture, he argues that in the past, architecture was a community undertaking. Dwellings were built with a natural feeling for context and function, resulting in “a
remarkably suitable comeliness”.4 Although not the aim of his essay, the buildings he describes seem to be evidently truthful about the scenarios they were constructed within, without the need for over reliance on intent. “ARCHITECTURE IS PRODUCED BY ORDINARY PEOPLE FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE; THEREFORE IT SHOULD BE EASILY COMPREHENSIBLE FOR ALL” 5 - there is no stated truth or untruth, just an intelligible understanding of it. This is also echoed in another way by Rossi as he talks of a “timelessness” and an “honesty of practice” exhibited by “ the stonemasons or workmen who build the cathedrals, the factories, the big bridges, the big works of our time”.6 As we think of the stonemasons who create these monuments, we can understand the culture and dedication of their work which in turn tells a story (or a truthfulness) of the time. Although subjective, there is certainly an underlying ‘truth’. Similarly, when talking about his career, Tony Fretton recently stated that Architecture should tell a “FOLKLORE OF HOW WE LIVE”. 7 Whilst there is no single ‘correct’ tale (he admits “associations of objects are personal”), perhaps this is all indicative that truth in architecture is a collective one. This is not dictated by assertoric claim, but emerges from multiple highly personal interpretations of what it means to live. 1. Also Rossi, "Ceremony Acceptance Speech", Venice, 1990 <http://www. pritzkerprize.com/1990/ ceremony_speech1> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 2. Jeff Malpas, "Truth in Architecture", p. 3 <http://www.academia. edu/3982876/Truth_in_ Architecture> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 3. Peter Buchanan, "Empty gestures: Starchitecture's Swan Song", The Architectural Review, 25th February 2015
4. Steen Eiler Rasmussen, "Experiencing Architecture", Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1959, p20. 5. Ibid. 6. Rossi, "Ceremony Acceptance Speech" 7.Tony Fretton, Lecture at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 8th May 2017
Right [Fig 3-11]: MAKING DO AND GETTING BY Richard Wentworth Collective and emergent documentation of truth.
3. THE POST-TRUTH MINDSET HOW FAKE NEWS FINDS ITS WAY FROM OUR SMART PHONE AND INTO OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION
strengthens their beliefs.4 Naturally, has architectural On average, we now process the information has mirrored these equivalent of 174 newspapers changes? And, if so, will it have worth of information each day any effect? In his think piece over four times the amount from for the Architectural Review 20 years ago.1 Theorist Franco entitled Post-truth architecture, Berardi, believes such trends academic Steve Parnell restates have “produced a saturation the common belief that “the of human attention which has biggest challenge for architectural reached pathological levels”, criticism is, without doubt, the even going as far as to connect internet”.5 He describes it as a it to “increases in depression, world of “instantaneity”, “image” anxiety, panic disorder, and the and “misunderstanding”; and use of psycho-pharmaceuticals “where readers expect something to this acceleration”.2 (usually instant gratification) for Moreover, we now consume nothing”.6 this information in radically Despite this, the culture of different ways. In 2015, the non-digital media as formats mobile overtook the computer for architectural information is as the primary digital source of not lost. On the contrary, recent news whilst Facebook became magazines such as the Real “the most powerful force in Review, Bartlett Lobby and global news” with 44% of San Rocco have underlined the people globally using it as their value physical material retains in source of information for current the 21st century. Perhaps their affairs.3 Previously heralded reinvention of an age-old format as a democratic platform for can provide contemporary and dissemination and debate, online reliable new spaces for critique. information is now dependant Parnell lauds the benefits on the whims of algorithms and of such valuable criticism echoes of friendships bubbles. in architecture. Rebuffing News-streams are so constant architectural historian John that the perpetual analysis we Summerson’s belief that “criticism are forced to undertake leads to might be useful at the designing paralysis. Finding ‘truth’ amongst stage but it was no use criticising the abundance of unfiltered data when the building was up”, he is incredibly difficult, and makes instead states that Architecture falling back onto pre-existing (with a capital A) is created beliefs more attractive. Daniel in the discourse. Indeed, he Kahneman, a Nobel-prizewinning echoes Ernesto Nathan Rogers’ psychologist, calls this ‘cognitive statement that “there is no ease’: “humans have a tendency such thing as bad architecture; to steer clear of facts that would only good architecture and force their brains to work harder”. non-architecture”; with valid In some cases confronting criticism and praise being a key people with correcting facts even component of this.7
Ultimately, Parnell believes that the internet requires architectural media to adapt. With the current cursory commentary and “wallto-wall testimonials of praise” of Dezeen and ArchDaily, “architects got the journalism they deserve”. Concluding that “the profession needs strong criticism to thrive”, the issue, he states, is that online, when everyone's a critic, “real authority is difficult to establish”.8
highlights the shortcomings of this format. The blog Fuck Yeah Brutalism and Adam Furman’s rose-tinted Instagram retrospective of niche PoMo may occasionally unearth a forgotten gem but all too often crop out the well documented failings of these styles and form no cohesive space for debating their lost attributes.11 Furthermore, he questions the very nature of ‘social’ media. Incentive to share it seems, is IMAGE created not by the want for level debate but by a yearning for However, surely the ease with recognition. “Are we reduced to which we can now socialise, ‘liking’ Twitter posts, like caged capture and distribute information rats pawing the button that online has some benefits. In releases one more tiny hit of his essay for the Architectural socially secreted dopamine?”.11 Review looking at architectural Even for those willing to engage imagery in social media, Tom in debate, can they truly do so in Wilkinson asks if this can 140 characters? generate a re-collectivisation of In its most widely publicised the way we look at reproductions commercial form, Wilkinson of buildings and a re-socialisation believes professional architectural of how they are received.9 photography shows even less Indeed, this grassroots critical mass. At best creating media format has generated hyperbolized images of a building contemporary and stages for in a favoured light, photographers exhibition allowing a new forms (as their careers depend on of the reliable critique Parnell it) try to represent “what the discusses. Wilkinson points architect intended, not what the to photo blogs such as Kieran architect built”. Or, dare I even Long’s ‘Bad British Architecture’ say, what the user encounters. and Asif Khan and David Knight’s Buildings are reified not towards AANDD. Despite displaying honest documentation but to an overwhelming collection of commodification of style as stills information, they actually gain are “sterilised, and transformed their critical integrity through into receptacles for capital their extensive accumulation investment”.12 of photographic and thematic Images of the reality evidence.10 “unflattering angles, frustrated However, the lack of critical users ... and fucktheneighbours commentary beyond this is attitude” - are virtually unseen a glaring hole as Wilkinson in the architectural press.13
Above [fig12-14]: Olly Wainwright's images of the post-truths and doctored images of development hoarding.
Worse still, as the photography is disseminated, social media merely becomes just another PR machine regurgitating the practice’s favourite glamour shots. This stylised embellishment is perhaps at its worst in the CGI as better-than-photo-real rendering creates a hazy autumnal world of sunsets and abnormally transparent glazing. Clearly there must be room for some artistic license - for one buildings aren’t merely perceived through the eyes - but these fictional, beautified scenes are rarely held to account. Perhaps this is the most obvious example ‘fake news’ in architecture. Under-scrutinised falsities create emotional and momentary impact, little of which is later seen in the realised building. Worse still, like many aspects of architecture, money talks. The wealthiest developers can afford the best post-truth images that obtain the post-truth planning permission (perhaps not dissimilar to Arron Banks’ funding of UKIP’s post-truth politics?). However, developers (hardly synonymous with truth themselves) will often seek the easiest route to planning. Wilkinson points to a nastier trend, where the post-truth bug can infect the architecture itself. As amplified images and stylised CGIs are fed to us in abundance through the thumbnails of the web, “ a feedback loop is established between reproduction and production”. The effects of the momentary stimulus “seep into the profession itself”. Now,
Wilkinson believes, “some buildings are evidently built as images, and utility goes out of the window”.14 Erring towards the crude and functionless, perhaps there is a danger that this cycle marks the beginning of Post-Truth Architecture. OBJECT Aptly fitting into the world of the render, this hunger for embellished, digital canapes is mirrored in design through what Marshall McLuhan describes as 'sunset effect': “an exaggerated caricature of now obsolete characteristics of a waning era”.15 The final blossoms postmodernism seen in the golden glow of the Starchitects. Examining the output of such architectural celebrities, Peter Buchanan believes that we will not look back favourably upon current times. Noting the works of Gehry and Hadid, he questions recent fads for icons, exemplified by over exaggerated and ‘unique’ sculptural form.16 Such ‘object buildings’ are easily readable and seductive in their stereotypical swooping curves, but often become bland and anti-climatic once the initial excitement of form has faded. Results of the “preposterous concepts” that drive such designs, Buchanan highlights the way abstract ideas are imposed onto buildings and contexts, rather than emerging naturally. Confused jumbles of “empty gestures”, when realised these ideas offer little more than twodimensional fleeting novelty. 17
As these objects assemble in both the city and the media, we can see their quest for individualism becomes a highly generic collection of works devoid of both context and any lasting meaning. The ultimate crime of Starchitecture, according to Buchanan, is this fundamental irrelevance. Completely ignoring the urgent problems that currently face humanity many of these buildings prove both socially and ecologically unsustainable.18 The ‘empty gestures’ are ironically full of steel, concrete and most importantly carbon, and the spaces they shape are often awkward and underused. Interestingly, Buchanan questions our “astonishing gullibility” and cites an inability to exercise critical judgement as one of the reasons for Starchitecture's
1. Richard Alleyne, "Welcome to the information age – 174 newspapers a day" The Daily Telegraph, 11 February 2011, <telegraph. co.uk/news/science/sciencenews/8316534/Welcometo-the-information-age-174newspapers-a-day.html> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 2. Franco Barardi, cited Jodi Dean, "The Limits of Communication", Guernica Magazine, 1st October 2012 <guernicamag.com/the-limitsof-communication/> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 3. Jane Wakefield, "Social media 'outstrips TV' as news source for young people" 15th June 2016 <bbc.co.uk/news/ uk-36528256> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 4. Editorial, "Yes, I’d lie to you" The Economist, 10th September 2016. < economist. com/news/briefing/21706498dishonesty-politics-nothingnew-manner-which-somepoliticians-now-lie-and> [Accessed 15 May. 2017]
unsolicited rise.19 Sold to the public and the profession through evocative but ultimately unfulfilled concepts, these “white elephants” (he points to Eisenman’s work in Galicia) have found homes in multiple global cities, yet remain ironically detached from context. One may see it simply as bad design, but there has long been bad design, this seems different. The recklessness, even arrogance with which curving forms crash into nuances of their foreign context is surely a level above previous examples of poor architecture. Despite post-truth politics being in its infancy, the phrase somehow feels appropriate for this collection of objects now almost 2 decades old. Borne on preposterous concepts, their promises have seldom manifested, the architects rarely held to account.
5. Steve Parnell, "Post-truth architecture", The Architectural Review, 20th December 2016 6 - 9. Ibid. 9. Tom Wilkinson, "The Polemical Snapshot: Architectural Photography in the Age of Social Media", The Architectural Review, 15th January 2015 10 - 14. Ibid. 15. Marshall McLuhan, cited in Peter Buchanan, "Empty gestures: Starchitecture's Swan Song", The Architectural Review, 25th February 2015 16. Peter Buchanan, "Empty gestures: Starchitecture's Swan Song", The Architectural Review, 25th February 2015 17 - 19. Ibid.
4. FAKE-NEWS / REAL-ESTATE THE CURRENTS SHAPING THE WAY WE BUILD.
LA PETITE CABANE RUSTIQUE [Fig 15]: Laugier's Primitive Hut
“I HAVE BROADBAND AT HOME! MY NEW TABLET LETS ME WORK ANYWHERE! WITH MY SMARTPHONE, I ALWAYS KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON!” 1
the varied historical notions of the ‘first house’, at heart the essay shows the hut as an enduring metaphor, used endlessly in Architecture’s pursuit for renewal through a return to origins. Written five years ago by Furthermore, it seems clear that political theorist Jodi Dean, in hindsight her sarcasm shows she it is not the vision of an object Rykwert is describing, but of a really did know what was “going on!”. Whilst the faults of non-stop state of consciousness adduced information reached new heights by: with the dawning post-truth "CEREMONIES AND RITUALS era, Dean’s work chronicles the BY PEOPLE SOME STILL CALL underlying currents that led to this PRIMITIVE”.4 position: The hut has an eternality, “INVESTMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES DROVE THE NINETIES DOT-COM BUBBLE, FEEDING NEW ECONOMY HYPE, GENERATING EXCESS CAPACITY, AND LEADING TO NO DISCERNIBLE INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY APART FROM THAT IN THE HIGH-TECH INDUSTRY. EVEN AFTER THE BUBBLE BURST, NEW ECONOMY RHETORIC CONTINUED TO EXTOL DIGITALIZATION FOR ENABLING CAPITALISM TO OVERCOME ITS CONTRADICTIONS.”2
According to Dean, technology “made capitalism acceptable, exciting, and cool” whilst also providing the basic tools necessary for its neoliberal acceleration. Meanwhile, capitalism rewards the competitive individuals willing to “be connected, receive and process continuously”, in turn further adding to the “growing mass of data” of information.3 To Dean, capitalism and communication technologies are incestuously enmeshed, each enabling the other. (Perhaps the post-truth is an offspring of this hazardous relationship.) Architecture’s dependance on both capitalism and technology makes for an even gloomier image. In order to extinguish the post-truth, we must liberate ourselves from its formative capitalist routes. Through understanding and unpicking Architecture’s setting within the world Dean describes, can the profession practice from a more truthful position?
immortalised through the traditions of the time (primitive, habitual or other). Surely, therefore, it holds contemporary relevance? Probably the most famous of all the primitive huts is Charles Dominique Eisen’s frontispiece to Marc-Antoine Laugier’s Essai sur L’Architecture. Exploring the anthropological relationship between mankind and the natural environment, Laugier contended that ideal architectural form should embody natural and intrinsic forces. Written in the Age of Enlightenment, he saw the ornamentation and decoration of the Baroque and Rococo styles popular at the time as unfounded cosmetic (falsity) that hid the true essence of the architecture. Instead, he pointed towards natural origins for validity (truth). One issue of the hut, and also the problem of its association with the origins of Architecture, is that it is less a primal phenomenon and in fact an established typology and architectural object. It’s a chicken and egg scenario: what came first, the Architecture or the buildings? As Rykwert eludes, Architecture’s pursuit of origins in the Primitive Hut has been constant - perhaps it is in fact cyclical. The truth of the hut is that it is merely the result to primitive man’s quest for shelter and survival; its existence is not the question, but the answer. So what is the question? To quote Corbusier: “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PRIMITIVE MAN; THERE ARE ONLY PRIMITIVE MEANS.”
The architecture of the primitive hut was a direct result of * * * the primitive means and culture In his book, On Adam's House from which it was created. Surely, it is there that lies its ‘truth’? in Paradise, Joseph Rykwert charts the history of the ‘Primitive Perhaps the question is not one of finding the truth in Architecture; Hut’, delineating the evolution instead, architectural truth exists of the theme from Vitruvius through to Le Corbusier. Although external to the industry. centered around contextualising
Projecting the Primitive Hut forward to the present day, we can adopt its themes. What are the (primitive) means of the house? Or to phrase it differently, the methods and modes of 21st century housing. As described by writer Jack Self in Real Estates: Life Without Debt, now, the home has been “transformed into a fiscal necessity”6 that forms the financial safety net for retirees. TODAY, LONG-TERM DEBT CONTRACTS ARE BOTH “UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION” AND “POPULAR COMPULSION”.7 Primitive means are mortgage repayments, and primitive man is forced to settle on the not-soarable land of the housing ladder. The highly specific parameters this entails, influence the form and function of the house; most notably, according to Self, “its design must not diminish its value as an asset”.8 As Architects, what are we designing - an asset or a home? And are we complicit in propagating the post-truth assumption that it is indeed Architecture? Self expands this further. As the majority of homes are designed on a pre-established ‘spec’, the scene of domestic life is designed less and less by the architects and with a diminishing idea of the potential inhabitants. Instead, the financial institutions secreting funding to the developers have much more impact, implementing housing fluent in metrics that promote constantly increased fiscal efficiency. In truth, the contemporary house, he eludes, is dictated by finance and comprises of a neoliberal ideology of ownership and asset growth. This is disguised behind the legal abstraction of ‘real estate’ which allows the ‘home’ to maintain an “aura of familiarity”.9 Douglas Spencer further laments such economic models 1. Jodi Dean, "The Limits of Communication", Guernica Magazine, 1st October 2012 <guernicamag.com/the-limitsof-communication/> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Rykwert, J. On Adam's House in Paradise: the Idea of the primitive Hut in Architectural History, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1981
and their effect on architecture in his book, The Architecture of Neoliberalism, referencing Michel Foucault’s description of neoliberalism as a ‘truth game’. Here, he states, this ‘game’ implements neoliberal “truths of subjectivity” in the world through accounts of human knowledge, social complexity and market forces which legitimise its management of individuals.10 The truth, behind the subjective and complex ‘truths’ (lies), is the organisation of society by the market. In truth, the Architecture of neoliberalism is carved from untruths hidden within its inherent intricacy. Spencer also points to the parametricism of Zaha Hadid and more openly her successor, Patrik Schumacher, as the ultimate neoliberal model of complexity and control. “The architecture is fluid, its forms materialise out of thin air or extrude themselves into existence.11 There are no signs of labour”. Quintessential signs of the ‘empty gestures’ described by Peter Buchanan, the complexity in their formal moves mask the truth behind these neoliberal objects. Clearly building can only be possible with some form of funding, and as the capitalism is the current dominant economic system, there is no lie in its propagation of architecture. However, as Spencer suggests, the complications and privacy of this model hide its dark realities behind a veil of post-truth. Many of these are well documented and highly contested: Architecture as botched feasibility studies, Architecture as development hoarding lies, Architecture as gentrification. Others are intangible and furtive: Architecture as overwhelming private debt, Architecture as neoliberal efficiency, Architecture as asset.
5. Le Corbusier cited in "House of Hermits", The Hermitary < http://www. hermitary.com/bookreviews/ rykwert.html> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 6. Self, J. Real Estates: Life Without Debt, London, Bedford Press, 2014 7 - 9. Ibid. 10. Spencer, D. The Architecture of Neoliberalism London, Bloomsbury, 2017 11. Ibid.
5. MANIFESTO
“THERE CANNOT BE A MORE COMPRESSED MODEL FOR CITY INTENSIFICATION THAN THIS TOWER: 1.2 MILLION SQUARE FEET OF ACCOMMODATION BUILT ON A SMALL PIECE OF LAND DIRECTLY NEXT TO ONE OF LONDON'S MAJOR TRANSPORT HUBS” 1 Renzo Piano “SEE IT? THE SHARD. 95 FLOORS OF ABSOLUTE MERCANTILE DOOM. LOOK AT IT. SEQUESTERED AIR. THAT USED TO BE OUR AIR BY THE WAY - PUBLIC AIR. NOW, IT’S OWNED BY A PROPERTY COMPANY IN THE STATE OF QATAR. BLEURGH. A GIGANTIC STALAGMITE OF CONGEALED WEALTH” 2 Ian Martin Evidenced perfectly by comedy-writer and Architectural Journal columnist Ian Martin’s skewering of The Shard and outlined previously by Steve Parnell, the role of cutting criticism in the fight against fake news is imperative. However, of more urgent need, are the platforms on which this can happen. Although seemingly the mundane reality of doing so ultimately comes down to meticulous, consistent factchecking of text and images, ensuring they depict as close to the truth as possible. As one example, Tom Wilkinson highlights the Architectural Review’s recent conscious effort to cover the magazine with “in favour of the oblique and the occasionally unsettling” photographs.3 As for the curation of our own personal news feeds, which have just as much effect as formal media, we must all be the authority. As Jodi Dean states, “our attention isn’t boundless”, “we pay with attention and the cost is focus”.4 Despite this, complete rejections of an overwhelmingly image-based social media are perhaps unhelpful. We live in visual age - yes we get ‘the journalism we deserve’ but Instagram, Pinterest et al are all emblematic of and thoroughly suited to the 21st century. The greater danger, however, is when every image, (and every building), is subjected to the facelift of the filter. However, the true foe of the future is post-truth architecture. In hindsight, the empty gestures of object buildings and surreptitious operations of developers appear to be simmering with post-truth. These, and their inevitable mutations, must be answered with the aforementioned new modes of sincere critique. As highlighted by Wilkinson and Parnell, an honest feedback loop of build > review > critique is the keystone of (good) Architecture. More so, as we as Architects design and construct, we must strive for a ‘truth’. Fretton’s succinct and poetic notion of a “folklore of how we live” is a simple litmus test for honest design that has the potential to adapt to multiple scenarios. Current realities however, are unlikely to offer any sympathy for the niceties this
ethos employs. In the face of unethical development - where Architecture is, for example, an asset and not a home - muf architecture/art’s illustration of their own ethical test (tube) provides a ballsy precedent whilst their result work also pleasantly echoes Fretton’s ‘folklore’. But besides rejection of what we perceive to be untruthful modes of architecture, surely there must be engaging and competitive alternatives to the neoliberal developer led models? One example with an honesty and openness antithetical to these are those of the open source. Wikihouse and OpenDesk are defiantly anti-neoliberal - localised, competitive, sustainable architecture enabled through powerful and ethical use of technology. Meanwhile, Jack Self’s Ingot project exploits “fiscal tools of neoliberalism in order to weaken this profoundly immoral wealth redistribution”.5 Utilising a form follows finance model, he proposes a tower of 100% affordable housing and Section 106 amenities in the centre of the City of London, made possible through secure longterm bonds. Finally, the humble work of Assemble in Granby Four Streets in Liverpool shows that honest yet innovative architecture is possible even in rudimentary ways. However, how can we truly escape the status quo? To coin Pier Vittorio Aureli, to me, the metaphor of the ‘archipelago’ offers answers. Seeing “the city as the composition of (separate) parts” and reacting to the modern urbanisation Aureli describes as a capitalist “managerial paradigm”, it forms a model for innovative and truthful spatial practice.6 ‘Islands’ of reliable critique, of transparent metrics, of bespoke and local contexts - stoppages in the globalist post-truth world of ubiquitous information. It seems we need some separation in order to be able to finally discern what is truthful. Integrity and accountability are vital in enacting sustainable and truthful practices and this is only possible by creating space for it within the current world. In the anonymity of mass society, where does responsibility lie? Society must disentangle before it fragments.
1. Renzo Piano, cited in "The Shard by Renzo Piano and other buildings shortlisted for RIBA Awards " <http://www.buro247. me/lifestyle/design-and-architecture/the-shard-by-renzo-pianoshortlisted-riba-awards.html> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 2. Ian Martin, "Is texture the new frangrance?", Unbound, <unbound.com/books/epic-space> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 3. Tom Wilkinson, "The Polemical Snapshot: Architectural Photography in the Age of Social Media", The Architectural Review, 15th January 2015 4. Jodi Dean, "The Limits of Communication", Guernica Magazine, 1st October 2012 <guernicamag.com/the-limits-ofcommunication/> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 5. Jack Self, "Real Estates - The Ingot", <onarchitecture.com/ content/ingot> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] 6. Aureli, P.V. The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2011, Introduction p x.
Descending from top: [Fig 16]: Ian Martin whilst discussing The Shard. [Fig 17]: Jack Self's Ingot [Fig 18]: Archtecture00's Wikihouse [Fig 19]: Assemble's Granby Four Streets [Fig 20]: Muf's line of complicity
Bibliography Alleyne, R. Richard Alleyne, "Welcome to the information age â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 174 newspapers a day" The Daily Telegraph, 11 February 2011 <telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8316534/ Welcome-to-the-information-age-174-newspapers-a-day.html> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Aureli, P.V. The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2011, Introduction p x. Barardi, F. cited in Jodi Dean, "The Limits of Communication", Guernica Magazine, 1st October 2012 <guernicamag.com/thelimits-of-communication/> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Buchanan, P. "Empty gestures: Starchitecture's Swan Song", The Architectural Review, 25th February 2015 Dean, J. "The Limits of Communication", Guernica Magazine, 1st October 2012 <guernicamag.com/the-limits-ofcommunication/> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Corbusier, L. cited in "House of Hermits", The Hermitary < http:// www.hermitary.com/bookreviews/rykwert.html> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Malpas, J. "Truth in Architecture", p. 3 McLuhan, M. cited in Peter Buchanan, "Empty gestures: Starchitecture's Swan Song", The Architectural Review, 25th February 2015 Parnell, S. "Post-truth architecture", The Architectural Review, 20th December 2016 Rasmussen, S.E, "Experiencing Architecture", Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1959, p20. Rossi, A, "Ceremony Acceptance Speech", Venice, 1990 Rykwert, J. On Adam's House in Paradise: the Idea of the primitive Hut in Architectural History, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1981 Self, J. Real Estates: Life Without Debt, London, Bedford Press, 2014, p 5-8 Self, J, "Real Estates - The Ingot", <onarchitecture.com/content/ ingot> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Spencer, D. The Architecture of Neoliberalism London, Bloomsbury, 2017 , p. 1-2 Fretton, T. Lecture at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 8th May 2017 Wakefield, J. "Social media 'outstrips TV' as news source for young people" 15th June 2016 <bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36528256> [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Wilkinson, T. "The Polemical Snapshot: Architectural Photography in the Age of Social Media", The Architectural Review, 15th January 2015 Unknown - Editorial, "Yes, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d lie to you" The Economist, 10th September 2016. < economist.com/news/briefing/21706498dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-somepoliticians-now-lie-and> [Accessed 15 May. 2017]
JASPER JOHNS THE CRITIC SEES 1964
Fig 1: http://www.itv.com/ news/2016-05-11/uk-doesget-back-some-of-350m-itsends-to-eu-boris-johnsonadmits/ [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Fig 2: Illustration, Chatwin, R. Figs 3 - 11: Wentworth, R. Richard Wentworth: Making Do and Getting by. London, Koening Books, 2015 Figs 12-14: https://twitter.com/ ollywainwright?lang=en-gb [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Fig 15: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/KQRIlECyDY8/VXhSK_ V8uXI/AAAAAAAAFyU/ kTg2wPnlLME/s1600/hut.jpg [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Fig 16: https://unbound.com/books/ epic-space [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Fig 17: http://www.onarchitecture. com/content/ingot [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Fig 18: https://urbantransitionuk. wordpress.com/tag/ community-land-trust/ [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Fig 19: https://progrss.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/04/ Farmhouse8_ WikiHouseFoundation_CC_ BY.jpg [Accessed 15 May. 2017] Fig 20: https://www.disegnodaily. com/article/visions-for-2017muf-architecture-art [Accessed 15 May. 2017]
5 ARTICLES ADDRESSING A THEME
5 ARTICLES ADDRESSING A THEME