Tillståndet

Manifest by Zaha Hadid

Augustinumret av Icon, 50 manifest av 50 arkitekter/kontor/designers/debattörer. Bred blandning av folk, rakt ur tiden, en kontrollmätning av tillståndet för arkitektur, design, samhälle och narcissism.

Förtjänstfullt kort hållna, i ansträngningsjusterad citatlängd som bloggposter medan middagen väntar. En del tillkomna på en höft, en del skrivna av kommittéer, andra sammanfattningar av utmejslade yrkesfilosofier.

Passar förstås Rem Koolhaas perfekt, som använder sin plats för en hyllning till Europa, och en prognos:

"The Eurasian giants, India and China, wait benevolently until we are ready to start the post-Atlantic era together. Then the distribution of oil can be arranged between the ones who are benefiting directly from it. The desert will no longer need to be pumped out for American SUVs."

Peter Eisenman (hem):

"In staging the appearance of reality as spectacle, media induces passivity. The more passive the audience, the more necessary spectacular imagery becomes. It is a vicious cycle in which architecture today is more than ever implicated. In such a context, today’s subject, now rendered passive, is truly in danger of losing the capacity for close reading."

Peter Saville (hem):

"Creativity has become part of the business of social manipulation. The cultural adventure has been consumed by business. Making things better is a moral issue, but morality and business don’t go together – business is, if not immoral, then amoral"

Jasper Morrison (hem):

"Design, which used to be almost unknown as a profession, has become a major source of pollution."

Steven Holl:

"At the beginning of the 21st century, architecture can be the most effective instrument for reconstructing the relations between our species and the earth."

Geoff Manaugh (hem):

"The suburbs are architecture; bonded warehouses are architecture; slums are architecture; NASA's lunar base plans are architecture - as are the space stations in orbit about us. Stop limiting the conversation."

Med flera.