Nudging: The very Antithesis of Choice
‘Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness’ by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein; Penguin, 2008. 224pp Reviewed by Martyn Perks | 19 December 2008 Organ donation is a contentious issue. As it stands in the UK, losing a close relative can suddenly mean a difficult decision on whether or not to donate their organs, especially if they did not indicate any prior consent. There are moves towards...
The Future of Community
Speech given at Belfast Salon, Northern Ireland launch of The Future of Community Alastair Donald | 25 November 2008 For obvious reasons British identity has long been a contested subject in Northern Ireland. However, today national identity has become a problematic issue on a much wider scale, with society’s elite no longer able to secure support for, or even articulate an agreed set of collective values. This was confirmed...
Disparity and Diversity in the Contemporary City: social order revisited
Dave Clements | 25 October 2008 This event at the LSE was billed as a ‘look at classic urban themes as they are manifested in the contemporary city, focusing on social reproduction of inequality, the meanings of disorder, and the link between the two’. Such scholarly intercourse between sociological heavyweights might have promised much, but it delivered little in the way of insight. Indeed, the indecipherable verboseness of the...
Young People and Social Exclusion
A review of a Royal Society of Arts event held on 8th October 2008 Dave Clements | 15 October 2008 Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts, on his way to Radio 4’s Moral Maze, found time to leave us with his thoughts on what he clearly felt was one of the hottest of topics, even in the eye of the economic storm. What once seemed impossible now seems possible, he said. Certainly, the world financial crisis had just...
Dan Dare or Dan Daren’t
Austin Williams | 3 October 2008 Whatever happened to the jet-pack; the monorail; the personalised Lear jet; Maglev taxis; automated highways; long-haul flights by space shuttle? All of these strange and wonderful transport ideas were commonplace Utopian ambitions for the future as seen by the Sixties’ generation. Most of them were even technologically possible back then. Today, if there is ever mention of anything so fanciful, it...
A World History of Architecture
‘A World History of Architecture’ (2nd Edition) by Michael Fazio, Marian Moffett and Lawrence Wodehouse; Laurence King, 2008. 692pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 3 August 2008 This is a scholarly work that is thoroughly researched, beautifully presented and genuinely fascinating. The authors pull off a difficult balancing act: presenting highbrow ideas in a readable manner while ensuring that it is neither an academic text book nor a...
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...
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