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Author Tay Kheng
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2002 Preamble The International Union Architects
(UIA) will be holding its 21st World Congress in Berlin from 22-26th
July 2002 on the theme of, "Resource Architecture". I serve on the
scientific committee, which is to chart the content of the congress. The
committee consists of key members of the Organising Committee drawn from Bund
Deutscher Architekten, BDA and representatives from the five UIA world
regions. I was appointed by the UIA Co-ordinating Council to represent Region
4, our region. At the request of the editor of, "Architecture
Asia", I take this opportunity to draw attention to some of the issues
discussed at the scientific committee meetings. There were to be 5 meetings
but the 4th one was cancelled due to the traumatic events
following from 9/11/01. We in the UIA Congress’s Scientific Committee
considerations were seriously jolted. 9/11 gave added urgency to the thinking
process underway concerning the relationships and responsibilities of
architecture, urban design and landscape architecture to the world. The
following is an attempt on my part to relate these to the conditions and perceptions,
as I understand them to be in the Asia Pacific region. Asian Concerns: Firstly, I must say that the kinds of
discussions we are used to in Arcasia are more tangible, that is, they derive
from a near-view perspective. These views can be grouped into four
categories. Firstly concerns about the loss of practice turf perceived as
foreign encroachment. Secondly, issues of culture to bolster our claims for
legitimate domain. And thirdly, issues of de-professionalisation seen as
industry-threats from other building industry professionals. Finally, there
is a growing trend to look at the city as a whole, its challenges and its
prospects as the vital context for architecture. This forth issue is a
healthy trend that will lead towards considering the environmental as well as
the urban context of architecture as a whole. If this trend is sustained, the
emerging Asian discourse will connect with the global concerns now being
focussed in Berlin and elsewhere. Some Key Issues Identified in Berlin: In the wake of 9/11 and in the obvious
context of Samuel Huntington's, "Clash of Civilisations", the UIA
Congress Committee feels the need for a, "dialogue across
civilisations", especially in the context of the negative aspects of
globalisation. There is a growing awareness of the connection between
environmental degradation and growth. This is really the nub of the issue.
For sustainability in architecture design to be meaningful architects have to
be part of a deeper discourse on changing directions. This is difficult since
much of contemporary architecture is indeed premised on the growth economy. Towards a Steady-State Economy The question I posed to the committee
is thus fundamental. It is to consider economist, Herman E Daly's "no
growth" thesis seriously. The thesis is that the human economy is a
subset of the eco-system and this is unavoidable. But in an 'empty' world
this is no problem as the waste generated is absorbed by the eco-system's
sink services. The issue today is that in a "full" world, the
eco-system can no longer provide the sink services. Thus, all the signs of
'limits' are looming and an environmental crisis, based on globalised growth
is being signalled. If the signs are as urgent as indicated, the Daly
proposition has thus to be considered seriously. The world, according to
Daly, has to move away from its fixation with globalised growth and move
towards, "a steady-state model", where the emphasis is on positive
transformative development rather than growth. A new regime based on generalised
improvements in living conditions should replace the trickle down of benefits
generated by growth from upper classes to lower classes. Thus there should be
equitable income distribution, social security for old age, food security and
cheap medical support etc. In other words, a good life is projected based on
the available new technology and the ubiquity of information and education. Old Utopias are no Hindrance to New Ones Much as been learnt from the failure of
centralised socialist command economies and bureaucratic systems not to
repeat the failures. While production will be community based, much space for
individual initiative as needed is not inhibited. Bureaucracy would be
minimised. Communities become self-regulating with the professional classes
providing facilitation services. The dreams of 19th Century
utopias are now possible with the new technologies. There will be strict
limits placed on waste generation and any further material resource
depletion. This is a new vision of the possible and it puts into perspective
the current gradualist strategies towards achieving sustainability.
Sustainability is much more fundamental than cumulative adoption of energy
efficient technologies. It implies a total makeover of society. It is a call
to switch to a different economic model beyond tinkering with gadgets and
gestures. In all probability, a transformative process is already in motion
where growth and transformation is concurrently underway. What will be the
final outcome is an open question. An architecture that aids the
transformation is a revolutionary architecture. It is an architecture that is
free of histrionics.
Architecture as a Resource The theme, "Architecture as a
Resource" of the congress does not, as yet, address the deeper issue of
economic transformation but nevertheless raises the environmental agenda as a
key agenda for architecture and architects within the assumption of the
present growth economy concept. I said at the recent meeting that, of course,
the admission of the Daly thesis would change the entire complexion of the
congress. A more focussed discussion is a matter perhaps for the future.
Still, it is correct that "Architecture as a resource" be seen as
part of the cycles of nature, a repository of history and a vehicle for
regional culture and commitment to beauty as defined by the congress
committee. Beauty as Authentic Community Consensus There was much discussion on beauty.
While most acknowledge the importance all know the difficulty of any
definitive resolution. My response is that with the atomisation of community
into autonomous producing and consuming individuals as at present, unless
there is the possibility of bringing about genuine place-based communities
there can be no authentic consensus on what is beauty. Finally, arising from
all this discussion is the important question as to the moral basis of
architectural practice in this day and age. This I feel is the most important
question for the congress to focus on especially at this time in human
history. Some Asian Responses to Global Questions In reflecting on these key questions, I
want to share some thoughts on the issue of dialogue in Asia. I want to say
that this is not going to be easy. The dialogue across Euro-American
civilisations is easy. Action is something else. There, there is so much more
common interest and shared history and roots. But between the West and the
rest are huge gulfs. Not the least is the legacy and continuation of
domination of the non-West. Among the non-west, there are also great
differences. These are issues of a sensitive nature related to history and
religion and complicated by class, ethnic and religious social structures
within existing societies, which resist dialogue. Many concepts are closed
off. But in the modern age, no issue can be totally closed. All issues become
legitimate subjects for reasoned scholarship and findings can be disseminated
despite censorship or denial. Areas of relative freedom do become sanctuaries
for critical studies and bases for the propagation of new and controversial
ideas on the Internet. This is the positive part of the dynamics of the world
that cuts across cultures and oppressive regimentation. So the pace of change
will quicken. Architecture as context for Experiential Learning But there is a pace of change that
perhaps cannot be hurried by dialogue and ideas have to occur in tandem with
social change within societies as they move towards greater emancipation.
Experiential learning cannot be communicated through books or electronic
media. This is where there is a special role for architecture in the way
urban spaces are designed for greater potential human interaction and
expression. But more than this is the way architecture comes about. Housing as Agenda for Deep Social Change The way housing is brought about has
greater impact. Housing can be a major part of enlightened social development
if people are empowered to build their own homes and communities. We need to
get away from the technocratic conception where the delivery system is monopolised
by the powers that be with the architect as part of the top-down delivery
system. This process breeds dependent societies designed precisely for the
maintenance of the dominance and legitimacy of the ruling classes. If this
method continues, such societies will lack self-confidence and creativity.
Such a situation will also increase the appetite for consumerist propaganda.
As such, spontaneous critical dialogue on culture will be slow to develop and
cultural progress will be thwarted. Entreprenuership and private enterprise
will be stymied. Innovation and self-awareness of environment and natural
endowment atrophies. But if housing is seen as a profoundly
emancipatory process to build healthy communities, self-help, co-op,
eco-villages and co-housing are all possible architectural and community
building forms and techniques for social and environmental reorganisation and
ultimately regeneration. Economic Typology Here, the key issue, as I see it, is
the context. What kind of development economics? Development as growth or
development as social transformation? Increasing production and consumption
will undermine efforts at achieving environmental sustainability. When social
progress through empowerment of individuals and communities is, a political
agenda, transformation of society can then become a concomitant of
environmental sustainability. The two act on each other. This will mean
different arrangements between business and government as people are factored
into the equation. The kind of rapid economic growth that is premised on the
tandem relationship between government and corporate-capital and a quiescent
workforce producing a cascade of benefits down the classes to starve off
revolt cannot breed new societies and new sensibilities. Social Darwinism and Mega-Cities The social Darwinist perception will
stultify the growth of any authentic community and a culture of trust that
makes authentic community possible. Development achieved this way fixes the
city in the role of efficient engine for economic growth. Human interactions
are marginalised and interceded by giant bureaucracies. This is the nature
and the genesis of mega-cities. The bloated distended sweatshops, which serve
as human habitat in Asian cities under transformation are a massive result of
environmental and human failure. But, as noted earlier, that such a scheme
assumes unlimited resources and ever-available environmental sinks for the
wastes generated. It also assumes the patience and fatalism of countless
millions of Asian people attracted and trapped by the mega-cities of growth
and misery. This is the nexus in the predicament of Asia's mega-cities that
Asia has ultimately to attend to. The sweatshops of Europe were transformed
when the good life was attained. The choices must come out of hard realities,
not the least is some modicum of material satisfaction. Not merely out of the
goodness of kind hearts. Towards an Eco-Regional Economy in Asia Is it realistic to attempt
environmental sustainability when the nature of the economy undermines, in a
serious way, any gains made through use of energy saving and less polluting
technologies and when bio-diversity is wasting away? Will architects still
think it worthwhile to design beautiful deck chairs even as the ship is
sinking? We need to reflect on this in Asia. The
current recession after the 1997 monetary crisis is also a watershed in other
ways. Asians have found it necessary to rethink their economies. Firstly, a
greater concern for regional development as evidenced by collective interest
in furthering regional economies through AFTA while simultaneously some
countries seek bilateral FTAs. USA's unilateral imposition of steel and other
import duties contrary to WTO promulgations signals the bankruptcy and
efficacy of WTO concepts in the globalisation of free trade. Secondly, a greater
awareness of the need for enhanced rural development in many Asian countries;
its productive and political dimensions are concerns. Awareness of issues of
the environment, water resource, unseasonable weather due to global warming,
soil depletion, loss of forest cover etc., are arising in contrast to the
previous focus on cities as engines of growth. And thirdly, greater awareness
on the part of urban populations of the need for greater transparency and
accountability in governance and demands for participation in national
affairs. Working against these trends are the heavy emphasis on continued
reliance of exports to the West, continued elitism, crony capitalism and
technocratism in the approach to problem solving. The tension is
palpable. What Asia must do is to increase
self-reliance and intra-Asian exchanges. New synergies are emerging between
China and its periphery. Greater heed to geography may offer new
possibilities for social and environmental development without stripping and
polluting the environment. Talent and self-respect will become important
processes and generate new products in themselves. Presently, it is hard to
imagine new possibilities but as the logic of a shrinking Western market for
consumer goods following on from the ageing population of the West makes
impact on Asian consciousness, Asia will in turn focus more on the Asian
economy. Perhaps then an eco-regional economy as envisaged by Herman Daly
will come about due to this process. Even China's burgeoning export
capability may then swing away from presumed Western Markets to focus on
domestic and regional markets. A new regional synergy is thus possible. Many
more viable fringe, regional and intermediate towns will be needed in this
economy as the landscape transforms and the mega-cities are disaggregated.
Life could achieve a new kind of eco-equilibrium based on lower costs, zero
pollution and zero inflation. All these situations will change Asian
deference towards all things Western. A new self-reliance will then come
about. The substrate of Asian communitarian social instincts will resurface
to serve a new modern Asian society. Also, Asia's latent reverence for
nature, which has remained feeble gestures and symbolic tokens, may find new
expression. A Re-look at Globalisation in the Making of a New World
Order But there is a present reality that
confronts architecture and architects that has to be lived though. The
municipal, the ethical and the global can no longer be denied is evidenced by
global trends still premised on endless growth. As a result of such a vision,
the GATTS and the WTO’s promulgations are intended to smooth the way for
transnational capital's penetration into all markets. The moves threaten to
change everything. Free trade in goods and professional services means that
architecture and consequently architects can no longer claim legitimacy in
their own land. All this will have to change. But only if the premises of a
new developmental non-growth economy is socially and thus politically
tenable. Underperforming Architecture Even as globalisation's pace quickens,
the threat of global environmental degradation gets more urgent. Architecture
in Asia will thus be prevailed upon to face the issue seriously. As it is,
architecture as a whole is grossly underperforming. The average urban and
suburban dwelling in is 17 times poorer in energy performance compared to the
best prototypes. And since dwellings and their occupants account for half the
green house gas emissions globally, architects and builders have a lot to do
to improve the design of dwellings. This is exacerbated by the urbanisation
pattern. The way Asian cities spread outwards to emulate Western image of the
'good life' generate more car traffic and therefore more pollution moreover
the big city footprints also snuff out existing bio-diversity and greenery.
The micro and the macro dimensions of design must be taken into consideration
together. Underperforming Style On style, there is a different dilemma.
How can needed new Asian high rise, high-density office and residential
buildings in the city centres be designed for desirable lifestyles to combat
sprawl? Aesthetically, how to adapt the principals of traditional prototypes
to modern buildings is not being addressed by Asian architects to any
significant degree because they are enamoured of western styles even if they
do not admit to it. Innovation is also hard. Developers and their architects
thus continue to rely on the West for their ideas and their aesthetic values.
Indeed, many Asian elites regard western styles as appropriate symbols of
modernisation and development. Styling by Young Architects As the independence generation of Asian
architects who strove for modern localised design responses to challenges of
the new state. As the fires of independence die down, the new generations of
Asian architects are increasingly patterning their architecture on the
cannons of Western design aesthetics. They meekly accept the Western formal
design language to be universal believing that adding some gestures of local
nuance is all that is possible. Even the so-called Asian avant-garde is
derivative. It is merely a posture. The power of Western dominance has almost
totally stifled all indigenous initiatives in design. The Collapse of Culture The long assumed regional and therefore
cultural focus of architects to express their own culture has collapsed under
the long reach of globalisation. Architecture and architectural services are
now open to the free market. Genius loci in design is no longer to be the
domain of nationals. From now on, place making is subject to the ebb and flow
of internationalised tastes and styles. To address this question is complex
and may well go beyond the normalised discourse familiar in Asian
architectural circles. This paper will therefore has therefore to try to step
outside the normalised professional discourse in order to piece together from
the web of connected and seemingly unconnected issues a new agenda to be
placed on the discussion table. It will not be easy and it will be
disturbing. A New Moral Basis The problem is that a new agenda has to
start from fundamentals. If architecture is to have a moral basis again, it
will have to be part of the central issues of our times. The architectural
agenda cannot be a conversation among architects alone. To imagine meaningful
interventions the issues of society and environment has to be taken on board.
If this is the line then, there are critical issues, which, on the face of it
are not connected but need to be. They are strangely, terrorism and social
justice and environmental degradation and place value. This is the agenda of
our times and also our architectural agenda. Cultural Erosion The erosion of cultures by the
homogenisation of values and sensibilities through mass media culture. The
degradation of environment by excessive resource exploitation resulting in
loss of bio-diversity and the fossil fuel generated global warming. Thinning
out of, indeed, massive invalidation of large areas of human skills and
knowledges expressed in the formally rich variety of jobs-types by factory
and office jobs. The displacement of indigenous sensibilities and the death
of many local indigenous languages for wont of use are happening. The
elimination of local know-how and the depletion of lifestyle choices etc. are
all part of a growing disquiet but have all become paralysed in the face of
globalisation. Voices in Asia expressing concern is drowned in the frenetic
rush to catch up with the West. Time to rethink. Injustice and Terror If regrets are perceived as injustices
impossible to correct, they can become fuel for inflammatory thoughts and
actions. The new reality is that the very same means by which capital,
technology and power can move with impunity over great distances and
penetrate into every tiny crevice of life in the interest of wealth and
influence can just as readily be used for counter action by a minority
aggrieved group. So indeed, a New World Order may well be in the making and
what a terrible one it might turn out to be. The dilemma is how to have development
with social and environmental justice without destroying the eco-system and
not corrupt and deplete all civilisational values to the dictates of a
selfishness premised on the privatisation of consumption. This is where the
idea of global economic growth runs up against the environmental limits of
earth's ability to provide the needed commodities for growth and sufficient
sinks to absorb the waste produced. Development must be distinguished from
growth. If steady-state economists, presently
the most serious of the critics of globalisation, are to be heeded, radical
review of the basis of the development and growth assumptions within the Globalisation
Ideology has to be undertaken. Where does this leave us? Morals for a New Architecture Architects are called upon to consider
issues of social and environmental justice in their thinking and in their
designs or serve the forces of the market uncritically. The result of blind
service is the cult of narcissism having come about as a result of the end of
ideology at the tail end of the 20th Century. The global economic
stagnation prevailing now is an opportunity to rethink new moral basis for
architecture and development.
The Human Condition, the Economy and Aesthetic Order, Now is therefore the time to rethink
and reformulate new ways of understanding reality as it really is. While it
is necessary to note the factors that shape the environment, it is equally
important to delve into its underlying human causes. These lie in the human
mind, heart and senses. My contribution to the discourse on sustainability,
growth or development is a hypothesis on the dialectics of the human condition
as the genesis of the environmental crisis. I have thus found it necessary to
ask how does the human existential anxiety exist and how it affects culture
and consumption. If one can understand the causes, the chances of accurately
characterising the problems becomes easier. Such an investigation could yield
the reason why cultures compete and consume till the economies they create
upsets the eco-system itself. Does restoring the eco-system mean changes to
human nature? How can human
nature be inveigled into necessary change? Human Persona Firstly, let us look at the dynamics of
the evolving human personality to be able to note its characteristics. It is
insufficient to not selfishness, greed, hatred, etc. One has to consider the
basis of such emotions and motivations rather than assume these to be
inviolate givens. Considerations of basic emotions in a dynamic manner is
more revealing and therefore fruitful. It is obvious that when one considers
the human maturation process one can note that there are stages. And each
stage has different configuration and intensity of concerns. Moreover, we
recognise each stage better after we have passed through it. As each stage is
traversed, what is clear is that there is a shedding of old anxieties. These
can be seen as defensive
constructions put up by the prior state to protect against anxieties
perceived then. Thus, it is possible to be aware of the process by which
layers of constructed selves (persona), images of self, not real selves, and
are built up around the vulnerable self and fall away. Indeed then we can see
that the human economy is indeed propelled by the adding and subtracting of
these constructions by different generations of human beings mashed together.
Anxiety, Image and Desire Architectural desires and images are
just some of the constructions. Architects themselves pass through maturation
stages and their work and ideas reflect the anxieties and desires at each
stage. If unfavourable conditions of practise persist, the condition of anxiety
fuels the appetite for more desperate expressions as each opportunity is
seized upon in anxious fashion. A state of protracted adolescence in design
may thus results. This could explain the present design culture where such a
desperation to be different characterises the excesses and wastefulness of
the designs. This therefore could explain the disorders in the built
environment as the combined anxieties of developers and their architects. A
more equitable and less anxious practice-environment is necessary. Kitsch, the narcotic of present society In Asia and in new societies emerging
out of the stagnation of old traditional cultures, the disorders are
magnified. Driven by personal insecurities and cultural anxieties and wanting
to be up to date, a pattern is clearly observable in the cities of Asia. The
city centres consist of gleaming steel and glass towers aiming to emulate the
architecture of New York or Tokyo. A ring of condominiums or suburbs, which
almost uniformly consist of Mediterraneanised Kitsch-style buildings,
surrounds this. A new appetite of design attempts consisting of twisted and
convoluted forms can now be seen. Design is an arithmetical process of
adoption, multiplication and modification in vain attempts to achieve
uniqueness and distinction dressed with status symbols and features. Why I
describe this as narcissistic is that it is intended primarily for
self-gratification and grandiose display cloaked as it may be in as many
equally contrived justifications. The underlying force is anxiety for
relevance and acceptance. This is the contemporary dialectics of
self-expression in architecture.
Authentic Community and the Modern project While the maturation process is
unavoidable, its destructive potential is magnified by the loss of community.
Therefore, primary communities in the dwelling places of human settlements
which have been replaced by communities of interest in the workplaces should
be rekindled. Once community is geographically disaggregated, primary
cultures lose cohesion and the aesthetics of place disappears. The loss of
cohesive habitat culture has far reaching consequences on children and old
people. Here I am not referring to the sort of restrictive conservative
values of traditional societies, but to the possibility of an enlightened
consensus of responsibility and care for each other and the environment
within a knowledge culture. The 20th Century's mad economic growth
premised on self gratification has left a legacy of fractured community life
wherever economic growth has been most rapid and pervasive. This needs to
change. If healthy forward-looking new
communities are to be engendered new economies rooted in people and place
will become self evidently desirable. Thus, a new nexus between eco-regions
and local development economy cab be imagined. But this is unlike anything in
the past as it will reflect the new information culture expressed in
different structures of power, economic relationships with nature and
heightened citizen involvement. Indeed, this implies a different social and
economic order from the present one. Architecture too, will be reformed by
such a reconceptualisation and reconstruction process. Conclusions on the moral basis of architectural practice
today Based on the preceding discussion, the
most important question focussed by the scientific committee for the 21st
UIA Congress is to ask for the moral basis of contemporary architecture
practice now and in the future. By returning to the roots of the human
condition, it is possible to see the framework in which the contradictions of
social and environmental justice can be addressed. What is clear is that the
terrors of contemporary life render such a realisation not possible.
Terrorism has proven that it will escalate in response to hard solutions and
desperation. Force is met with force. It is a no win situation. Media cannot
be monopolised either and so no seal is possible on presumed truth. The
flames of hatred are as readily fanned given the power of media technology,
as is the narcotising of conscience. A terrible parity exists between
dominance and terrorism. The cycle of violence can only be broken through the
making of a new beginning based on social and environmental justice. Architects have choice. They can
continue to practice narcissistically or be participants and agents of
positive change. They have to be part of the world's knowledge loop and not
be cocooned in a privatised
world of architectonic adventures. This is the pivotal moment in history not
to be lost. |
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