Architects launch critical manifesto: Towards a new humanism in architecture
Six urban designers and architects from the United Kingdom have launched a manifesto against the current state of architecture in the world titled 'Mantownhuman - towards a new humanism in architecture'. They argue that architecture is too much eco-centred, bureaucratic, anti-intellectual and fragmentary today, instead of being more critical, arrogant and future oriented.The authors of the manifesto believe that architects should be more prepared to kick against mainstream orthodoxies. They state that a more human-centred architecture should be created and architects should become more confident in architecture for architecture's sake. The aim of the manifesto is to initiate a debate over the future of architecture.
Description
The main messages of the manifesto are:
For: An architecture that imposes its will on the planet
Against: Architecture that 'treads lightly on the
earth'
For: Creative tension: robust assertive architecture
Against: Ideology-lite architecture where social policy
initiatives, participation, consultation and engagement are lauded
for the sake of the process
For: Extending the frontiers of architecture: Dare to
know...Dare to act...Dare to fail
Against: The precautionary principle in architecture - the imposed
and self-imposed limits to design
For: A new internationalism - dynamic architecture for an
integrated planet: an end to all restrictions on the global flow of
people, goods and ideas
Against: The new parochialism - passive architecture,
self-sufficient villages, slow cities
For: Architecture as discipline - for the autonomous exercise of
professional judgement and the defence of integrity
Against: Architecture as discipline - the instrumentalisation of
design for therapeutic or interventionist objectives
For: Building more - in the knowledge that we can, and should,
always rebuild later
Against: A culture in decline that questions whether we should be
building at all
Source: Manifesto: Towards a new humanism in architecture
Contact info
Publication date
5/8/2008