ESSAY: Anti-creative professions
Austin Williams | 3 August 2008 Eco-guru Bill McDonough argues that, for Designers, a ‘sustainable vision is essential’(1); an international product design conference claims that ‘sustainability is a global imperative’(2); and this year’s London Design Festival will host a ubiquitous ‘sustainable design hub… looking at the latest thinking on sustainable design.’(3) The American Institute of Architects currently identifies...
Time for a rethink
Alastair Donald | 3 August 2008 In June, Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly unveiled plans for the redevelopment of the famous but long derelict Battersea Power Station on the south bank of the London Thames. The designs incorporate the now ubiquitous commercial combination of shopping centre, hotel, offices and luxury flats. An energy museum in the original control room represents the obligatory nod to history/culture. The future...
What did regeneration ever do for us?
Austin Williams | July 2008 At a preview of the British Museum exhibition on the life and times of the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, one architecture critic claimed that Hadrian was the first ‘urban regenerator’ because of his involvement ‘in the minutiae of neighbourhood politics.’ That critic may not have intended to portray one of the greatest imperial adventurers as little more than a parish councillor, but these days, we shouldn’t be...
Sustainability is Killing Creativity
Austin Williams | 27 May 2008 The commonplace assumption underlying even the most anodyne sustainability discussion is that human activity causes harm and should, in some way, be reined in to suit whatever nature’s limits will allow. If our starting point is that increased human activity is inherently detrimental, then architects are simply in the position of damage limitation. How can architecture possibly maintain the illusion of...
The Pessimists: Putting the brakes on India and China
Austin Williams | 15 May 2008 Notwithstanding the fact that the president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington, Clyde Prestowitz, says excitedly that visiting China is ‘always an epiphany’ (1), in general, when considering the Chinese ‘economic miracle’ (2), the West has developed a nagging cynicism about that country’s rapid rate of development. Undoubtedly there are clearly arguments needed against what political...
The Meaning of (Terry Eagleton’s) Life
‘The Meaning of Life’ by Terry Eagleton; Oxford University Press, 2007. 128pp Reviewed by Dennis Hayes | 8 May 2008 We discover at the end of this short book that the ‘meaning of life’, for Eagleton, can be expressed in the metaphor of a jamming jazz band. This form of ‘collectivity’ is both a replacement for lost forms of radical social and political tradition and an offer of something seemingly positive in our atomised...
A Time for Manifestos
Austin Williams | 8 May 2008 This year is the 75th anniversary of the official closure of the Bauhaus, seen by some as signalling the high and low point of the avant garde experiment. The avant garde ¬- the artistic advance guard – was driven by a desire to challenge the institutions of the past in order to liberate new and experimental ideas. In the same year, the MARS Group was founded in London by Wells Coates and New York’s...
‘The Islamist’
‘The Islamist’ by Ed Husain; Penguin, 2007. 288pp Reviewed By Robin Walsh | April 2008 Ed Hussein’s tale of his time as a member of Hizb ut Tahrir is part memoir of misspent radical youth, part post-911 exploration of Islamic extremism. But despite falling between two genres known for their tendency towards the hysterical, Hussein’s book is both engaging and quite revealing about a number of aspects of contemporary...
The Craftsman
‘The Craftsman’ by Richard Sennett; Allen Lane, 2008. 304pp Reviewed by Martin Earnshaw | April 2008 The roots of The Craftsman, the first book in a forthcoming three volume work, go deep into the belly of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Richard Sennett recalls a conversation he had with his old teacher Hannah Arendt about the relationship between material innovation and politics. The relevance of such a conversation at the...
Ken’s war economy
Austin Williams | 30 March 2008 Ken, the consummate political hack, has learned that you only need to mention carbon emissions these days and it is enough to stifle criticism. What better way to create the mandate for any old restrictive policy, rubbishing your opponents and getting away with it. Claim that you are campaigning against climate change and, it seems, you are above criticism. Well pardon me if I don’t play ball. Firstly,...
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