What the 21st century seems to show is that size does make a difference, design good or bad. That seems to be where the economy is headed. With that, the size of firms that could accomplish the work is growing. China sets an example for the economy with the scale of their projects, and and another in their supporting architectural firms. The state owned architectural firms are behemoths, and very little need for anything else. The question of quality, the direction that we should be heading, still needs to be examined. The size of the package would have no direct link to the quality therein.
Allen E Neyman
Rockville, MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-04-2014 20:13
From: Nikolaus Philipsen
Subject: Is big Architecture Good Architecture? Example Winy Maas
Architecture Outside the Box: Small footprints. Big Ideas. For Example Winy Maas
"Architecture is too important to leave it to architects" (Title of an interview with the late Giancarlo De Carlo, Italian Architect)
Architects have a split public image. They get cool roles in the movies but in real life, there is suspicion abound: Aren't those the guys who just want to build monuments for themselves? Who care about being published in glossy magazines, who want to talk about everything and know little about anything? The folks that dress like artists and have fouled up the world with a whole bunch of buildings that most everybody would not consider art but rather see bulldozed? Let those guys do something real big and disastrous consequences seem inevitable. If it has to be big, let Dubai build it, or the Chinese. Just don't let them to it in our cities in the US.
Maybe this split image of architects and the general aversion of the American public to anything that smacks remotely of avant-garde has let
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Nikolaus Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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