The COVID-19 crisis and the emerging impacts of climate change have created a moment of crisis and perhaps clarity.
Maybe the Mococo—the tail end of the Modern Movement, represented by extravagant form making for form making sake—has come to an end, and architects can refocus on Firmness and Commodity, and not just a transient and insubstantial form of Delight.
This thought-provoking Washington Post article from Philip Kennicott examines the current state of Architecture. Concerning the state of architecture today, Kennicott writes:
Yet the exciting thing today is that this sense of humility is now joined to a resurgent sense of ambition. That makes the current moment of social and political activism different from earlier inflection points in the recent history of architecture. Unlike the 1980s and ’90s, when many architects turned inward into theoretical discourses that grew increasingly detached from practical building issues, and from the larger public, there is now a feeling that architecture must be, and can be, both theoretical and pragmatic.
© 2020 Christopher L. Cosper