World Day of Architecture today!

The International Union of Architects has chosen the first Monday of each year to be celebrated as the World Architecture Day. So here is the UIA president's message, which concerns a very current topic.

WORLD DAY OF ARCHITECTURE 2009

Architects' energy versus the global crises

How can we do more, better, with less?

We are together today to celebrate the 2009 World Day of Architecture and its theme: Architects’ energy versus the global crises.

The world is experiencing unprecedented and simultaneous environmental, climatic, financial and social crises that force us to urgently reconsider a number of parameters and find innovative solutions. In these difficult times, architects must step forward and show their aptitude to lead the struggle, to use these crises as a springboard for developing new technical, environmental, social, economic and aesthetic solutions. Developing pertinent responses to entirely new situations is the daily task of the professional architect.

Today, we must ask ourselves:

What are the new opportunities, orientations and aspirations resulting from the current crises?

What are the alternative and creative processes that architects and architecture students can offer?

How can we effectively contribute to reducing carbon emissions and the use of non-renewable energies.

How can we do more, better, with less? We must assume all the possibilities that are now open.

New options are always available for those willing to look for them. It is time to establish new partnerships in new areas.

I call on all architects to take every opportunity, even the smallest ones, to show what they can make out of nothing, using their intellect, design skills and lateral thinking to create sustainable solutions from this global crisis.

This year’s World Day of Architecture represents a new engagement toward a sustainable future. The next appointment is in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and everyone in the UIA is working to elaborate a world architects’ declaration for this event. The UIA’s commitment will continue, focusing on the Tokyo 2011 UIA World Congress of Architecture, where architects will invite all the creative planning forces to help design our planet for 2050.

From here in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Africa, where the UIA Bureau has assembled, I wish you all a constructive celebration of architecture and the architectural profession.

Louise Cox, AM
UIA President
5 October 2009.

And to celebrate the day, here are some photos of buildings by Mies Van Der Rohe, one of my very favourite architects ever.

Dirk Winkel: a star in the making?

Dirk Winkel is a young designer who just graduated from the University of the Arts, Berlin. His homage to the great icons of 20th century design as stackable, cheap, plastic objects, makes them even more desirable. Somebody snap up the rights for manufacturing!



From Design Milk.

Architecture as a reflection of cultural identity

A while ago, on one of my posts, a friend commented: " What if anything do you think a people or nation's choice of architecture says about their cultural identity?"

I think this is an intriguing question, worthy of a Ph.D. I will post my initial thoughts about this and maybe we can start a lovely discussion on this.

First of all, the nation's choice of architecture is not always, if ever, the choice of the people. Public buildings designs are usually picked without any kind of approval of the people. I'm not saying it is right or wrong, just mention it. So the design of a public building is either the choice of a specially appointed committee that hopefully is made of people relevant to the subject at hand or the choice of the head of a public organization or holder of a civic office.
For example, the new Town Hall by architect Tassos Biris and his late brother Demetrios, in my hometown of Thessaloniki is a nondescript building built in the worst possible place, chosen by the appointed committee without people's consent. Whether it reflects the citizens' cultural identity? I think it does. If people really cared about it, they would have protested it being built. They did nothing of the kind. And in a city in need of a modern architectural identity, it is a gravely missed opportunity.

Public buildings are a chance for the state or city or municipality, to show their power, position in the world, affluence. Take as examples the huge monumental National Library of France in Paris, built by François Mitterrand. Or the now standard procedure of hiring star architects to built important landmarks in cities that may even change their cultural identity, not reflect it. Case in point: the Bilbao Guggenheim museum. And don't tell me Bilbao was a mainstay of modern architecture and style when Gehry was picked to do that museum there. But it happened. The town people had done the right thing. And see where they are now.

Private buildings on the other hand are the choice of the owner, in collaboration with his architect. Grand scale private buildings or small adobes, if designed by an architect worth his salt, will be an accurate reflection of the owner filtered through the eyes of the architect. Therefore they will reflect his culture, tastes, personality, identity. It will also reflect the public taste of the times - building styles change throughout the ages. It also reflects people's lifestyle: People have different needs in Oslo than in Thessaloniki. The problems begin when the local authority's regulating offices are issuing regulations that hamper any chance of building beautiful and functional housing projects, forcing instead the people to build huge blocks of cement to make a quick buck. See what Greece suffered from maligned building laws and regulations from the 50s onwards.
So, as the future archaeologists examine the ruins of our civilizations, what will they make of our public and private buildings? Will they marvel at our now modern wonders of architecture? Will they laugh at the awful apartment blocks and housing projects that fill many cities around the world? Will they preserve beautiful samples of architecture like this wonderful summer house of Mies Van de Rohe?