Richard Farson claims that “Architecture has commoditized itself.”
...gone and done turned itself into a commodity. It is our fault he says. His presentation late last year, passed on to me by Barbara Hendricks and called “Embracing the Paradoxes of Sustainability” blames Architects for taking on a “vendor” mentality. And as a psychologist he encourages our profession to simply think differently.
We are not alone he suggests pointing to commoditization in journalism. And tells how the three major TV networks presented a total of 6 news segments on the Downing Street Memo on intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. At the same time they produced a total of 465 segments on the Michael Jackson trial. Farson says, “That is commoditization.” Doing what sells, not necessarily what’s right. Architects today, are enthusiastically and prolifically creating Michael Jackson-like architecture. This needs to stop.
Why?
Take the need for sustainability; not a new issue, but green buildings are still a rarity. According to Farson, there are only 60 buildings on the globe that meet the Green Building Council’s gold standards. Is that real progress towards sustainability? No. Farson states, “The fact that occasionally a green building happens has actually made matters worse because it reinforces our belief that we are on the right track, when we are not.”
We’ve placed our bets on serving business, the private sector, developers, corporations. Money and success comes from selling these folks what they want. But since architects only design 2% of the buildings in US it’s a bit of a stretch to say that big business, the private sector, has been all that supportive. And he adds that business leadership and social responsibility are necessarily incompatible anyway and suggests that we give up the expectation that individual business leaders will see the light and become environmentally or socially responsible. Or even that they should. Sustainability, he says, is a public concern.
Most damning, he argues, is that our success as architects in areas of sustainability and leadership has become very limited precisely because we are selling a commodity and subsequently then, we are now dominated by our clientele. Farson stresses it is extremely dangerous for our society to let that happen. In its orientation toward the private sector, architecture has become a commodity.
…his straight forward advice, “…it boils down to a rather simple choice you must make—you can develop the leadership that will enable you to build a better world, achieve real progress toward sustainability and meet the other goals you have cherished since you were students, OR you can continue the protectionism and commoditization and demeaning practices that now characterize the profession. I don’t see how you can have both leadership and the status quo.”
get the article here...Download farson_on_sustainability.pdf
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