{"id":1710,"date":"2010-07-28T22:12:45","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T02:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/?p=1710"},"modified":"2010-07-28T22:41:17","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T02:41:17","slug":"things-that-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/2010\/07\/28\/things-that-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Things that matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Museo<\/a>

Museo Guggenheim Bilbao - from La T\u00eate Kran\u00e7ien<\/p><\/div>\n

Mammoth directs<\/a> our attention to this post<\/a> from LA Times<\/em> architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne<\/a>, talking about the systemic flaws of lists of the best buildings (and architecture criticism in general):<\/p>\n

When Vanity Fair magazine\u00a0recently released the results<\/a> of a survey ranking the most significant pieces of architecture of the last 30 years — with Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, topping the list — the poll was met with more than a little grumbling. Some people griped about the many architects, including Richard Meier and Daniel Libeskind, who voted for their own work (talk about a vanity fair!); others noted that the average age of those polled, a group\u00a0including architects, critics and academics,\u00a0seemed to be pushing 70.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mammoth also notes the tendency for architects to nominate their own buildings to the list – particularly the ones that don’t show up on any other lists.\u00a0 Another criticism was the list’s complete whiff on any green architecture, spurring an alternative contest<\/a> with an emphasis on sustainability.\u00a0 Hawthorne delves into the more fundamental issue:<\/p>\n

Asking voters to submit a list of single buildings necessarily produces results that give a skewed view of the way architecture — and more important, the way we think and write\u00a0about it — has evolved in recent years.Among critics and architects alike, there has been a growing understanding that architecture is not just about stand-alone icons but is tied inextricably to real-estate speculation, urban planning, capital flows, ecology\u00a0and various kinds of networks<\/em>. Similarly, ambitious architecture criticism now means a good deal more than than simply writing about impressive new landmarks, green or not,\u00a0produced by the world’s best-known firms […]\n

Maybe, in other words, the most important achievement in green architecture over the last 10 or 30 years is not a single building at all. Maybe it’s a collection of schools or linked parks or the group of advisors brought together by a young mayor somewhere. Maybe it’s a\u00a0new kind of solar panel, a tax credit or a zoning change<\/em>. Maybe it’s tough to hang a plaque on — or photograph for a magazine spread.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Emphasis is mine.\u00a0 The same logic applies to the environmental benefits of urban density<\/a> and city living, as opposed to just adding LEED certified buildings.\u00a0\u00a0 How about hanging that green award on a carbon tax<\/a> or the elimination of parking minimums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mammoth directs our attention to this post from LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, talking about the systemic flaws of lists of the best buildings (and architecture criticism in general): When Vanity Fair magazine\u00a0recently released the results of a survey ranking the most significant pieces of architecture of the last 30 years — with Frank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[89],"tags":[91,451,210,473,206,169],"class_list":["post-1710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-planning","tag-architecture","tag-density","tag-networks","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainable-communities","tag-zoning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pHcGQ-rA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1715,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710\/revisions\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}