"Design and power, locked in an uncanny embrace": Ian Vollner on the Chicago Architecture Biennial

2015-12-02T14:30:00-05:00

Look closely and you might find that the two operations are connected: Bureaucracy turns out the statistical slurry, and architecture reconstitutes it into built form. And since the actual process of making architecture occupies the lower half, as it were, of this digestive cycle, it is generally held to be an ancillary thing, tedious and occult.

"Given the popularity of this perception, it’s understandable that the field of design is seized by a sneaking inferiority complex—which is why, from time to time, architects must meet up to remind the world, and one another, that what they do is Important Shit."

After some linguistic judo and a slew of qualifiers aimed primarily at tenuous power relations and poorly-disguised disciplinary insecurities, Volner concludes, "CAB has a fighting chance to emerge as the leader in its field."

In case you're not already glutted from all the reviews of the CAB, here's some more:

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"Design and power, locked in an uncanny embrace": Ian Vollner on the Chicago Architecture Biennial