After Blogging

The texts have been poignant in relating architecture to political ideology, and society as a whole.

Blogging is a powerful tool allowing freedom of speech. There is no class system in the blogging world. Through writing one can develop and convey ideas, and it allows a platform to record those ideas and allow others to interact with them. Writing to express a theory is all about the reader, just as the final product of a building is all about the user. The different writing styles of the texts leads one to question who the audience is, and therefore the best way to express our ideas.

The power of the word should not be undermined. We began by discussing jargon in our every day society, and the social exclusion that this causes. The press also use words as an apparatus; spinning stories moneymaking stories as the unelected party with a commercial bias. Politicians, like buildings, have become superficial symbols of a country, mad into good and evil, selected for their charisma and spin stories – being photogenic, rather than for their integrity. The press and the consumer are attracted to the ease of black and white, the hero and the devil, incriminating victims before they have been proven innocent or guilty. But our world is not simple.

Hadid calls London a ‘city of lost opportunities’, whilst Hickey complains of the lack of any significant theorists. We need to seize opportunities and not wait for others to tell us what to do. The global crisis is very real, and we are a part of it.

Humans are susceptible to a kind of brainwashing through laziness and pressure – whether it be from religion, culture or politics. The pouring of mass hysteria at the death of Kim Jong Il was not so different from that when Princess Diana died. But we all have minds, which we should challenge in order to develop solutions and ideas.

There is no such thing as the Genius Architect working alone on a project for the greater good of mankind. Architecture and urbanism are about collaboration with the people and communities we are building in. An architectural education is not just limited to the time spent in Architectural School; it is all around us, in the politics and social agenda of the everyday.  

We must learn from past mistakes to inform the future. It is vital to understand the ideals the systems, the problems that have arisen and how this has worked. Every generation has issues to face up to, and ours is the financial crisis and the impact of technology – good and bad. And no one can resolve this except us.