Will Self interview - Revision history

Designing Buildings at 07:01, 30 November 2020

2020-11-30T07:01:29Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:01, 30 November 2020
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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW): In your modernist 'trilogy' which concludes with 'Phone', technological developments of the day are examined alongside new forms of mental illness. How do you think smartphones are influencing or changing our perceptions of the built environment?	+	\| Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW): In your modernist 'trilogy' which concludes with 'Phone', technological developments of the day are examined alongside new forms of mental illness. How do you think smartphones are influencing or changing our perceptions of the built environment?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: You’ve written that one of your main preoccupations as a surrealist writer was the conundrum presented by the very notion of scale - how has this fuelled your imagination?	+	\| DBW: You’ve written that one of your main preoccupations as a surrealist writer was the conundrum presented by the very notion of scale - how has this fuelled your imagination?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: How do you think growing up in the Hampstead Garden Suburb affected your perception of the city and built environment?	+	\| DBW: How do you think growing up in the Hampstead Garden Suburb affected your perception of the city and built environment?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: Do you think the problem is that architects seem to have become stereotyped as an Ayn Rand/Rourke-like hero character fulfilling their grand and ambitious visions, rather than as having a more utilitarian purpose for social good?	+	\| DBW: Do you think the problem is that architects seem to have become stereotyped as an Ayn Rand/Rourke-like hero character fulfilling their grand and ambitious visions, rather than as having a more utilitarian purpose for social good?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: In the aftermath of the [[Grenfell_Tower_fire\|Grenfell tragedy]] you said that it was now impossible to view all these new high-rises amorally. Could you elaborate on that?	+	\| DBW: In the aftermath of the [[Grenfell_Tower_fire\|Grenfell tragedy]] you said that it was now impossible to view all these new high-rises amorally. Could you elaborate on that?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: Are you surprised by the lack of expressed anger or impetus being taken by Generation Rent on these issues?	+	\| DBW: Are you surprised by the lack of expressed anger or impetus being taken by Generation Rent on these issues?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: Why isn’t there some kind of mass squatting movement taking place, reclaiming all the empty space across London, especially when you consider the widespread squatting communities of the 70s/80s?	+	\| DBW: Why isn’t there some kind of mass squatting movement taking place, reclaiming all the empty space across London, especially when you consider the widespread squatting communities of the 70s/80s?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: You’ve written in the past about privately-owned public spaces governed by rules that are largely kept secret. Can you see the tide turning at any point, or might we one day end up with all of London’s open-air spaces being privately owned?	+	\| DBW: You’ve written in the past about privately-owned public spaces governed by rules that are largely kept secret. Can you see the tide turning at any point, or might we one day end up with all of London’s open-air spaces being privately owned?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: So is the derive [walk without aim] something you would prescribe to the masses as a remedy for their increasing sense of disconnection from their urban surroundings?	+	\| DBW: So is the derive [walk without aim] something you would prescribe to the masses as a remedy for their increasing sense of disconnection from their urban surroundings?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: Earlier in 2017, you did a BBC Radio4 programme marking the 70th anniversary of the Town and Country Planning Act. Do you have any confidence that the ambition and optimism that influenced those regulations could be revitalised today for a new transformation of the built environment?	+	\| DBW: Earlier in 2017, you did a BBC Radio4 programme marking the 70th anniversary of the Town and Country Planning Act. Do you have any confidence that the ambition and optimism that influenced those regulations could be revitalised today for a new transformation of the built environment?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: What is your favourite fictional rendering of the built environment?	+	\| DBW: What is your favourite fictional rendering of the built environment?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: Is there an architect or urban planner you most admire?	+	\| DBW: Is there an architect or urban planner you most admire?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: What is your favourite building?	+	\| DBW: What is your favourite building?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: Is there a building you’d most like to see demolished?	+	\| DBW: Is there a building you’d most like to see demolished?
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	~~\|width="100%"~~\| DBW: Building you’d most like to visit that you haven’t managed to yet?	+	\| DBW: Building you’d most like to visit that you haven’t managed to yet?
	\|}		\|}

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	--[[User:Michael_Brooks\|Michael Brooks]]		--[[User:Michael_Brooks\|Michael Brooks]]

−	[[Category:Publications_/_reports]] [[Category:Theory]]	+	[[Category:DCN_Commentary]] [[Category:DCN_Person]] [[Category:Publications_/_reports]] [[Category:Theory]]

Editor at 10:48, 17 August 2018

2018-08-17T10:48:35Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:48, 17 August 2018
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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW): In your modernist 'trilogy' which concludes with 'Phone', technological developments of the day are examined alongside new forms of mental illness. How do you think smartphones are influencing or changing our perceptions of the built environment?
−	Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW):	+
−	In your modernist 'trilogy' which concludes with 'Phone', technological developments of the day are examined alongside new forms of mental illness. How do you think smartphones are influencing or changing our perceptions of the built environment?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: You’ve written that one of your main preoccupations as a surrealist writer was the conundrum presented by the very notion of scale - how has this fuelled your imagination?
−	DBW:	+
−	You’ve written that one of your main preoccupations as a surrealist writer was the conundrum presented by the very notion of scale - how has this fuelled your imagination?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: How do you think growing up in the Hampstead Garden Suburb affected your perception of the city and built environment?
−	DBW:	+
−	How do you think growing up in the Hampstead Garden Suburb affected your perception of the city and built environment?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: Do you think the problem is that architects seem to have become stereotyped as an Ayn Rand/Rourke-like hero character fulfilling their grand and ambitious visions, rather than as having a more utilitarian purpose for social good?
−	DBW:	+
−	Do you think the problem is that architects seem to have become stereotyped as an Ayn Rand/Rourke-like hero character fulfilling their grand and ambitious visions, rather than as having a more utilitarian purpose for social good?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
	\|width="100%"\|		\|width="100%"\|
−	DBW:	+	DBW: Critics might characterise the built environment of the 21st century as comprising buildings built with no intention of anybody actually using them, whether it's the 'invisibility' of Silicon Valley, vast data centres, or luxury high-rises with no one living in them.
−	Critics might characterise the built environment of the 21st century as comprising buildings built with no intention of anybody actually using them, whether it's the 'invisibility' of Silicon Valley, vast data centres, or luxury high-rises with no one living in them.	+

	Do you see this as something in lock-step with the socio-economic system of neoliberalism, or as something more profound and entrenched within society?		Do you see this as something in lock-step with the socio-economic system of neoliberalism, or as something more profound and entrenched within society?
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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: In the aftermath of the [[Grenfell_Tower_fire\|Grenfell tragedy]] you said that it was now impossible to view all these new high-rises amorally. Could you elaborate on that?
−	DBW:	+
−	In the aftermath of the [[Grenfell_Tower_fire\|Grenfell tragedy]] you said that it was now impossible to view all these new high-rises amorally. Could you elaborate on that?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: Are you surprised by the lack of expressed anger or impetus being taken by Generation Rent on these issues?
−	DBW:	+
−	Are you surprised by the lack of expressed anger or impetus being taken by Generation Rent on these issues?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: Why isn’t there some kind of mass squatting movement taking place, reclaiming all the empty space across London, especially when you consider the widespread squatting communities of the 70s/80s?
−	DBW:	+
−	Why isn’t there some kind of mass squatting movement taking place, reclaiming all the empty space across London, especially when you consider the widespread squatting communities of the 70s/80s?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: You’ve written in the past about privately-owned public spaces governed by rules that are largely kept secret. Can you see the tide turning at any point, or might we one day end up with all of London’s open-air spaces being privately owned?
−	DBW:	+
−	You’ve written in the past about privately-owned public spaces governed by rules that are largely kept secret. Can you see the tide turning at any point, or might we one day end up with all of London’s open-air spaces being privately owned?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: So is the derive [walk without aim] something you would prescribe to the masses as a remedy for their increasing sense of disconnection from their urban surroundings?
−	DBW:	+
−	So is the derive [walk without aim] something you would prescribe to the masses as a remedy for their increasing sense of disconnection from their urban surroundings?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: Earlier in 2017, you did a BBC Radio4 programme marking the 70th anniversary of the Town and Country Planning Act. Do you have any confidence that the ambition and optimism that influenced those regulations could be revitalised today for a new transformation of the built environment?
−	DBW:	+
−	Earlier in 2017, you did a BBC Radio4 programme marking the 70th anniversary of the Town and Country Planning Act. Do you have any confidence that the ambition and optimism that influenced those regulations could be revitalised today for a new transformation of the built environment?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: What is your favourite fictional rendering of the built environment?
−	DBW:	+
−	What is your favourite fictional rendering of the built environment?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: Is there an architect or urban planner you most admire?
−	DBW:	+
−	Is there an architect or urban planner you most admire?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: What is your favourite building?
−	DBW:	+
−	What is your favourite building?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: Is there a building you’d most like to see demolished?
−	DBW:	+
−	Is there a building you’d most like to see demolished?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	{\|		{\|
−	\|width="100%"\|	+	\|width="100%"\| DBW: Building you’d most like to visit that you haven’t managed to yet?
−	DBW:	+
−	Building you’d most like to visit that you haven’t managed to yet?	+
	\|}		\|}

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	* Garden cities.		* Garden cities.
	* Housing shortage.		* Housing shortage.
−	* Interview with Kevin McCloud.	+	* Interview with Kevin McCloud 2017.
		+	* Interview with Kevin McCloud 2018.
	* Interview with Tom Dyckhoff.		* Interview with Tom Dyckhoff.
	* Owen Hatherley interview.		* Owen Hatherley interview.

Editor at 16:33, 9 February 2018

2018-02-09T16:33:53Z

Show changes

Editor at 13:05, 26 October 2017

2017-10-26T13:05:48Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:05, 26 October 2017
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	* Owen Hatherley interview.		* Owen Hatherley interview.
	* Peter Barber - interview.		* Peter Barber - interview.
		+	* Psychogeography.
	* [[Richard_Rogers_in_conversation_at_Somerset_House\|Richard Rogers in conversation.]]		* [[Richard_Rogers_in_conversation_at_Somerset_House\|Richard Rogers in conversation.]]
	* Social housing.		* Social housing.

Editor at 15:30, 4 August 2017

2017-08-04T15:30:36Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:30, 4 August 2017
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	It seems to me that CAD/CAM designing, and in-built algorithms that produce renders, are in exact parallel with the way GPS navigation systems give you masses of location and no orientation; everything is pinpoint accurate but de-contextualised.		It seems to me that CAD/CAM designing, and in-built algorithms that produce renders, are in exact parallel with the way GPS navigation systems give you masses of location and no orientation; everything is pinpoint accurate but de-contextualised.

−	My argument is that you can't judge the city by old aesthetic criteria or by outmoded philosophies - whether it's Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, City Beautiful, or whatever - it's going to be inadequate for what becoming. Having seen what's become, what you first notice is that the signature buildings - the Rogers', the Gehry's - look like nothing, they're overwhelmed by the parametrics that surround them.	+	My argument is that you can't judge the city by old aesthetic criteria or by outmoded philosophies - whether it's Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, City Beautiful, or whatever - it's going to be inadequate for what becoming. Having seen what's become, what you first notice is that the signature buildings - the Rogers', the Gehry's - look like nothing, they're overwhelmed by the [[Parametricism\|parametrics]] that surround them.

	When these strange parametric bodkins started to pop up round here [Nine Elms, South London], I tried to reserve judgement, as everyone should with the built environment, rather than be tediously conservative about it. But with this density of new builds, it is actually starting to make the city look pretty awful.		When these strange parametric bodkins started to pop up round here [Nine Elms, South London], I tried to reserve judgement, as everyone should with the built environment, rather than be tediously conservative about it. But with this density of new builds, it is actually starting to make the city look pretty awful.

Editor at 11:27, 4 August 2017

2017-08-04T11:27:38Z

Editor at 11:06, 3 August 2017

2017-08-03T11:06:19Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:06, 3 August 2017
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	WS:		WS:

−	It will defy it eventually, the forces that will bust this freeze-dried city are going to be very powerful and disruptive ones. It'll have to be because it's vise-like at the moment, the way these economic tendencies, the commoditisation of space and place is filling up the city and shutting it down.	+	London will defy it eventually, the forces that will bust this freeze-dried city are going to be very powerful and disruptive ones. It'll have to be because it's vise-like at the moment, the way these economic tendencies, the commoditisation of space and place is filling up the city and shutting it down.

	It's like surveillance, which we would seem to care less about than any other country in the world. By the same token, I fear that people's argument is 'well, I don't notice the difference so why would it bother me..?'		It's like surveillance, which we would seem to care less about than any other country in the world. By the same token, I fear that people's argument is 'well, I don't notice the difference so why would it bother me..?'

Editor at 11:05, 3 August 2017

2017-08-03T11:05:03Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:05, 3 August 2017
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	{\|		{\|
	\|width="100%"\|DBW:		\|width="100%"\|DBW:
−	In the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy you said that it was now impossible to view all these new high-rises amorally. Could you elaborate on that?	+	In the aftermath of the [[Grenfell_Tower_fire\|Grenfell tragedy]] you said that it was now impossible to view all these new high-rises amorally. Could you elaborate on that?
	\|}		\|}

Editor at 11:04, 3 August 2017

2017-08-03T11:04:10Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:04, 3 August 2017
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	{\|		{\|
	\|width="100%"\|DBW:		\|width="100%"\|DBW:
−	~~The~~ built environment of the 21st century ~~could be said to be characterised by~~ buildings built with no intention of anybody actually using them, whether it's the 'invisibility' of Silicon Valley, vast data centres, or luxury high-rises with no one living in them.	+	Critics might characterise the built environment of the 21st century as comprising buildings built with no intention of anybody actually using them, whether it's the 'invisibility' of Silicon Valley, vast data centres, or luxury high-rises with no one living in them.

−	Do you see this as something in lock-step with the socio-economic system of neoliberalism~~, which some argue is on it's last legs~~, or as something more profound and entrenched within society?	+	Do you see this as something in lock-step with the socio-economic system of neoliberalism, or as something more profound and entrenched within society?
	\|}		\|}

Editor at 11:01, 3 August 2017

2017-08-03T11:01:53Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:01, 3 August 2017
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	It's inevitably bound up with the profession, the old adage is 'most artists think they're god, architects know they're god'.		It's inevitably bound up with the profession, the old adage is 'most artists think they're god, architects know they're god'.

−	I remember talking to Norman Foster in that weird Bond-lair room at the top of the Gherkin - with its Pantheon-style oculus of plain glass. At the time he was doing the dome on the Reichstag and the GLA building, and he told me he had a pilot's licence to fly himself from Berlin to London and vice versa if he needed to. That must have given him a really god-like perspective cruising from one grand project to another across Western Europe.	+	I remember talking to Norman Foster in that weird Bond-lair room at the top of the Gherkin - with its Pantheon-style oculus of plain glass. At the time he was doing the dome on the [[Reichstag_building\|Reichstag]] and the GLA building, and he told me he had a pilot's licence to fly himself from Berlin to London and vice versa if he needed to. That must have given him a really god-like perspective cruising from one grand project to another across Western Europe.

	[[File:Normanfoster280.jpg\|link=File:Normanfoster280.jpg]]		[[File:Normanfoster280.jpg\|link=File:Normanfoster280.jpg]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:27, 4 August 2017
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	{\|		{\|
	\|width="100%"\|Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW):		\|width="100%"\|Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW):
−	In your modernist 'trilogy', which concludes with 'Phone', technological developments of the day are examined alongside new forms of mental illness. How do you think smartphones are influencing or changing our perceptions of the built environment?	+	In your modernist 'trilogy' which concludes with 'Phone', technological developments of the day are examined alongside new forms of mental illness. How do you think smartphones are influencing or changing our perceptions of the built environment?
	\|}		\|}

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	It seems to me that CAD/CAM designing, and in-built algorithms that produce renders, are in exact parallel with the way GPS navigation systems give you masses of location and no orientation; everything is pinpoint accurate but de-contextualised.		It seems to me that CAD/CAM designing, and in-built algorithms that produce renders, are in exact parallel with the way GPS navigation systems give you masses of location and no orientation; everything is pinpoint accurate but de-contextualised.

−	My argument is that you can't judge the city by old aesthetic criteria or by outmoded philosophies - whether ~~its~~ Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, City Beautiful, or whatever - it's going to be inadequate for what becoming. Having seen what's become, what you first notice is the signature buildings - the Rogers', the Gehry's - look like nothing, they're overwhelmed by the parametrics that surround them.	+	My argument is that you can't judge the city by old aesthetic criteria or by outmoded philosophies - whether it's Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, City Beautiful, or whatever - it's going to be inadequate for what becoming. Having seen what's become, what you first notice is that the signature buildings - the Rogers', the Gehry's - look like nothing, they're overwhelmed by the parametrics that surround them.

	When these strange parametric bodkins started to pop up round here [Nine Elms, South London], I tried to reserve judgement, as everyone should with the built environment, rather than be tediously conservative about it. But with this density of new builds, it is actually starting to make the city look pretty awful.		When these strange parametric bodkins started to pop up round here [Nine Elms, South London], I tried to reserve judgement, as everyone should with the built environment, rather than be tediously conservative about it. But with this density of new builds, it is actually starting to make the city look pretty awful.
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	As Claude Levi-Strauss said, 'alterations in scale always sacrifice the sensible in favour of the intelligible'. Whether it's a map or a model, what do these giant desk-toys actually do, what do they make more intelligible? Surely only the non-human, or distorted human, source of their origin.		As Claude Levi-Strauss said, 'alterations in scale always sacrifice the sensible in favour of the intelligible'. Whether it's a map or a model, what do these giant desk-toys actually do, what do they make more intelligible? Surely only the non-human, or distorted human, source of their origin.

−	It is the loss of the human scale in the built environment that is most telling. The growth of Manhattan in the 1920s/30s wasn't the same loss because the way in which the buildings were scaled was still assuming the human unit. There's something about these new renders that chucks the human scale right out.	+	It's the loss of the human scale in the built environment that is most telling. The growth of Manhattan in the 1920s/30s wasn't the same loss because the way in which the buildings were scaled was still assuming the human unit. There's something about these new renders that chucks the human scale right out.


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	In all sorts of ways. My adult perspective is that, as garden suburbs go, it's about the best in the world, some of the design is fantastic. Of course, I didn't perceive it that way as a kid; the suburb - particularly when I reached my teens - was hellishly dinky and confined. But it did serve me with a very pure understanding of what Ebenezer Howard's original vision of the garden city was.		In all sorts of ways. My adult perspective is that, as garden suburbs go, it's about the best in the world, some of the design is fantastic. Of course, I didn't perceive it that way as a kid; the suburb - particularly when I reached my teens - was hellishly dinky and confined. But it did serve me with a very pure understanding of what Ebenezer Howard's original vision of the garden city was.

−	It left me simultaneously with an appreciation of Howard's idea in design terms, how green and ~~walkable~~ a place could be, but also with a profound contempt because Howard's model was about self-sustaining, self-financing, self-capitalising, self-employing municipalities. He comes out with this late-19th century attempt to reconcile emergent socialism and capital interests, and of course he manifestly failed to do that.	+	It left me simultaneously with an appreciation of Howard's idea in design terms, how green and walk-able a place could be, but also with a profound contempt because Howard's model was about self-sustaining, self-financing, self-capitalising, self-employing municipalities. He comes out with this late-19th century attempt to reconcile emergent socialism and capital interests, and of course he manifestly failed to do that.

−	Indeed, in social, economic and political terms, all the bowdlerised Howardian suburbs you see all over Britain, and which are still being built (a new ~~Barrett~~ suburb will be just as Howardian as Letchworth or the Hampstead Garden Suburb), are a conspicuous failure. So it left me with an acute ambivalence about suburban development in that way.	+	Indeed, in social, economic and political terms, all the bowdlerised Howardian suburbs you see all over Britain, and which are still being built (a new Barratt suburb will be just as Howardian as Letchworth or the Hampstead Garden Suburb), are a conspicuous failure. So it left me with an acute ambivalence about suburban development in that way.


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	{\|		{\|
	\|width="100%"\|DBW:		\|width="100%"\|DBW:
−	Do you ~~think’s~~ the problem that architects seem to have become stereotyped as an Ayn Rand/Rourke-like hero character fulfilling their grand and ambitious visions, rather than having a more utilitarian purpose for social good?	+	Do you think the problem is that architects seem to have become stereotyped as an Ayn Rand/Rourke-like hero character fulfilling their grand and ambitious visions, rather than as having a more utilitarian purpose for social good?
	\|}		\|}

	WS:		WS:

−	It's inevitably bound up with the profession, the old adage is 'most artists think they're god, architects know they're god'.	+	It's inevitably bound up with the profession; the old adage is 'most artists think they're god, architects know they're god'.

	I remember talking to Norman Foster in that weird Bond-lair room at the top of the Gherkin - with its Pantheon-style oculus of plain glass. At the time he was doing the dome on the [[Reichstag_building\|Reichstag]] and the GLA building, and he told me he had a pilot's licence to fly himself from Berlin to London and vice versa if he needed to. That must have given him a really god-like perspective cruising from one grand project to another across Western Europe.		I remember talking to Norman Foster in that weird Bond-lair room at the top of the Gherkin - with its Pantheon-style oculus of plain glass. At the time he was doing the dome on the [[Reichstag_building\|Reichstag]] and the GLA building, and he told me he had a pilot's licence to fly himself from Berlin to London and vice versa if he needed to. That must have given him a really god-like perspective cruising from one grand project to another across Western Europe.
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	[[File:Normanfoster280.jpg\|link=File:Normanfoster280.jpg]]		[[File:Normanfoster280.jpg\|link=File:Normanfoster280.jpg]]

−	Even if you say the architect should serve the community more, should be more grounded in the quotidian, there still remains something very god-like about the architect's role, so intimately connected to our being in the world, to Martin Heidegger's idea of what constitutes home - ~~I think~~ it just is a more powerful job in that sense than other jobs.	+	Even if you say the architect should serve the community more, should be more grounded in the quotidian, there still remains something very god-like about the architect's role, so intimately connected to our being in the world, to Martin Heidegger's idea of what constitutes home - it just is a more powerful job in that sense than other jobs.


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	If you think of architecture, under conditions of maximal neoliberalism, as simply the wrapping paper for space and place, then you don't really need to bother about the wrapping once things get to a certain value, there's no added value to the wrapping.		If you think of architecture, under conditions of maximal neoliberalism, as simply the wrapping paper for space and place, then you don't really need to bother about the wrapping once things get to a certain value, there's no added value to the wrapping.

−	Again, it's to do with ~~this~~ privileging of location over orientation; the old saw-horse of whether a building is in a dialogue with its surroundings. In neoliberal conditions, where you have 'ultimate commodity fetishism', there's no need for any building to have a discussion with another building, it stands on its own value. And since its value exceeds its aesthetic or cultural load, it doesn't really matter what it looks like.	+	Again, it's to do with the privileging of location over orientation; the old saw-horse of whether a building is in a dialogue with its surroundings. In neoliberal conditions, where you have 'ultimate commodity fetishism', there's no need for any building to have a discussion with another building, it stands on its own value. And since its value exceeds its aesthetic or cultural load, it doesn't really matter what it looks like.

	So I do think it's a function of extreme neoliberal conditions and I confidently expect it to blow up with the next crash to some extent.		So I do think it's a function of extreme neoliberal conditions and I confidently expect it to blow up with the next crash to some extent.
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	Then you extrapolate from that to the other 'barcode facades' and the cladding on the luxury flats, and you think - what's that hiding? What it's hiding is a complete lack of dynamism or invention or originality in terms of the relationship between form and function. So we've already said, under conditions of maximal neoliberalism, form follows finance utterly - so that's what the cladding is hiding. And that's an ugly thing.		Then you extrapolate from that to the other 'barcode facades' and the cladding on the luxury flats, and you think - what's that hiding? What it's hiding is a complete lack of dynamism or invention or originality in terms of the relationship between form and function. So we've already said, under conditions of maximal neoliberalism, form follows finance utterly - so that's what the cladding is hiding. And that's an ugly thing.

−	You can see there how ~~deaesthetised~~ the environment is overall, it's no longer the result of any real meaningful aesthetic choice, and at that point it becomes clearly meaningful to talk about morally bad buildings.	+	You can see there how de-aestheticised the environment is overall, it's no longer the result of any real meaningful aesthetic choice, and at that point it becomes clearly meaningful to talk about morally bad buildings.


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	Frankly I am, I think they should take the fight where it belongs - with the Baby Boomers. If I were young now, I would be explicitly political about youth, I don't see why not. Your parents' generation ruined the environment and your chances for some sort of stability in this kind of economic dispensation.		Frankly I am, I think they should take the fight where it belongs - with the Baby Boomers. If I were young now, I would be explicitly political about youth, I don't see why not. Your parents' generation ruined the environment and your chances for some sort of stability in this kind of economic dispensation.

−	I don't think there's anything wrong with organising some ~~sort~~ of political campaign around the rights of younger people, why not?! Corbyn and Labour are doing it a bit, but they daren't do it wholeheartedly.	+	I don't think there's anything wrong with organising some kind of political campaign around the rights of younger people, why not?! Jeremy Corbyn and Labour are doing it a bit, but they daren't do it wholeheartedly.


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	Thinking back to my own 20s squatting in London, I remember it was like this urban 'wiggle-room' that you could feel all the time. For a start, the city was depopulated, it had lost 1.5 million people between 1945 and 1965, so the city I grew up in felt quite empty.		Thinking back to my own 20s squatting in London, I remember it was like this urban 'wiggle-room' that you could feel all the time. For a start, the city was depopulated, it had lost 1.5 million people between 1945 and 1965, so the city I grew up in felt quite empty.

−	To give one example, Old Street roundabout was surrounded by bomb-sites and abandoned warehouses! There was a sense of plenty of space, and the squats were part of that, these liminal spaces. But what can you do? The last loopholes in the law were closed about 2 years ago, and ~~its~~ virtually impossible to squat anywhere now.	+	To give one example, Old Street roundabout was surrounded by bomb-sites and abandoned warehouses! There was a sense of plenty of space, and the squats were part of that, these liminal spaces. But what can you do? The last loopholes in the law were closed about 2 years ago, and it's virtually impossible to squat anywhere now.

	[[File:Oldstreet.jpg\|link=File:Oldstreet.jpg]]		[[File:Oldstreet.jpg\|link=File:Oldstreet.jpg]]
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	WS:		WS:

−	London will defy it eventually, the forces that will bust this freeze-dried city are going to be very powerful and disruptive ones. It'll have to be because it's vise-like at the moment, the way these economic tendencies, the commoditisation of space and place is filling up the city and shutting it down.	+	London will defy it eventually, the forces that will bust this freeze-dried city are going to be very powerful and disruptive ones. It'll have to be because it's vise-like at the moment, the way these economic tendencies, the commoditisation of space and place, are filling up the city and shutting it down.

	It's like surveillance, which we would seem to care less about than any other country in the world. By the same token, I fear that people's argument is 'well, I don't notice the difference so why would it bother me..?'		It's like surveillance, which we would seem to care less about than any other country in the world. By the same token, I fear that people's argument is 'well, I don't notice the difference so why would it bother me..?'

−	What I try and do with the psychogeography course I teach at Brunel is to disrupt that sense in younger people, teach them to smell the difference between a private-public space and a real public space, and start to actualise their subjectivity much more. Only techniques like that can really start to remove people from the 'man-machine matrix'.	+	What I try and do with the psychogeography course I teach at Brunel University is to disrupt that sense in younger people, teach them to smell the difference between a private-public space and a real public space, and start to actualise their subjectivity much more. Only techniques like that can really start to remove people from the 'man-machine matrix'.

	[[File:Public_space.jpg\|link=File:Public_space.jpg]]		[[File:Public_space.jpg\|link=File:Public_space.jpg]]
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	WS:		WS:

−	I very much like ~~Alaisdair~~ Gray's 'Lanark', it's a magnificent rendition of the imaginary urban realm that is co-extensive with the Glasgow that Gray knew. A more modern version of that is China Mieville's 'London's Overthrow', which is written as a kid's book.	+	I very much like Alasdair Gray's 'Lanark', it's a magnificent rendition of the imaginary urban realm that is co-extensive with the Glasgow that Gray knew. A more modern version of that is China Mieville's 'London's Overthrow', which is written as a kid's book.

	[[File:Lanark.jpg\|link=File:Lanark.jpg]]		[[File:Lanark.jpg\|link=File:Lanark.jpg]]