An Architecture of Impotence

S. Markson

 

As a tool of cultural and social intercourse, Architecture has been almost completely eclipsed by modern communication technology. Rendered impotent in its abilility to "speak" widely, architecture in recent years has been infused with either an historical premise [Postmodernism], or a highly theoretical and self-referential quality [Deconstructivism]. Either of these two modes of operation indicate its desire to speak on a subject.

The deaf ear of our global capitalist consumer culture takes no solace in these recent architectural and urban gyrations; the intensification of the media culture as a tool to sway economic and political opinion currently relegates buildings to the role of background static... much as the big bang has been reduced to a low amplitude hiss that stretches spatially and temporally into our subconscious.

Architecture must assert itself as an a priori modeler of space; and its semi-permanent, tactile, and tangible existence must be grounds on which it competes with the invisible, fleeting binary information code of digital communication.