“We built this city… without architects”

It was only this morning that I read about Robert Campbell’s (of Architectural Record Magazine) wish to experience architecture ‘with seven senses, not one’. He very rightly supplied a quote from Juhani Pallasmaa: “Instead of experiencing our being in the world, we behold it from outside as spectators of images projected on the surface of the retina.”

Campbell was speaking about how some specific examples of recent architecture in North America no longer engaged all vehicles of the human senses; but instead sought to impress upon only one: that of the visual. Campbell’s collumn left a somewhat sour aftertaste, saying, “Maybe someday, architecture won’t be up to the architects at all. Driving along in our bean-sprout-fueled cars, we’ll simply flip a switch to create our own environment. The same building will be Palladio for me, Goff for you.”

This brought up memories of a conversation with a certain friend of mine, who had postulated the theory that our very home, Singapore, could very well do without the service of its architects. After all, a large majority of the population had a somewhat superficial, if not skewed, perception of what constituted design. Why hire an architect when the local contractor could, given a couple of minutes, erect a wall of timber strips in your living room? Now you’ve finally got that timber-strip wall in your house - that’s design, isn’t it? No, we don’t need an architect - it’s too much of a hassle.

Now take a quick jump to Karachi, Pakistan, where the city uses only 2% of the services architects offer when planning projects. What implications await the city’s future developments? Read more from Pakistan’s very own Daily Times:

By Irfan Aligi

KARACHI: Associat Prof. Fariha Ubaid of the NED University’s Architecture and Planning department is disillusioned that no architect has ever been elected as an MNA even on a technocrat’s seat.

“Look at the development works around the city,” she says. “All over the world, traffic management plans are reviewed, altered or modified rather than just widening the roads but in Karachi, it’s all in reverse.” For her, as a nation, Pakistan has lost excellence in design and creativity due to a lack of professionalism and society does not support architects. More here.

[Images and some Text Courtesy of www.DailyTimes.com.pk ]

JJ is co-founder of 5ft Creatives and is currently based in New York.