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Tales from a toxic superculture: A closer look at the defining architecture controversies of 2024

2024-12-21T08:00:00-05:00

If there is a lesson to be taken from this year, it is that small evils lead to ever-bigger ones. The wrong behaviors and motivations get rewarded until the process capitalizes into a singular upending spectacle. That reality is just as resurgent in professional spheres and does appear likely to retain its dominance over other civic ones. Unethical practices, the influence (good or bad) of politics and public opinion, removal of history, and a culture of dishonesty coursed, as ever, through the domain of architecture in 2024. Inside its ranks, questions as to why the cycle itself is so prevalent continue to go unsettled.

Here, instead, is an impartial breakdown of the year’s most controversial news headlines in architecture. What can be taken from it is a testimony to the ways moral disintegration is both reflected and can be defeated in our built environment. We’ll start with the biggest stories and slowly narrow into a spotlight on the global salients within more limited constrain...

From the border wall to the Pritzker Prize: the architectural controversies that defined 2016

2016-12-01T12:04:00-05:00

As the year comes to a close, we're taking the opportunity to reflect on its defining moments. 2016 has been, for many of us, a pretty tough year—and the architecture community hasn't been immune to its trials and tribulations. Here's a round-up of some of the biggest controversies, debacles, and fiascos of the year.

The Boorish Border Wall Competition

Long before Donald Trump went from long-shot presidential candidate to President-elect, a controversial competition was launched to design the border wall that remains one his major campaign promises. Initiated by the mysterious Third Mind Foundation, the competition provoked immediate and intense backlash because of its asserted “neutrality” in regards to a proposal considered by many to represent the heights of xenophobia.

The Great Tokyo Olympic Stadium Debacle

This debacle actually began in 2015, but it continued well into 2016. Zaha Hadid Architects won a competition to design the National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and proc...