Manifestos serve a purpose. They make quick, abrupt statement, clear the air, and get attention. This manifesto is no different, except it has nothing theoretical to state nor anything specific to propose. It only has one maxim: there are no good ideas. Its only corollary, which necessarily follows, is that there are no good designs. — Numéro Cinq
The essay revisits Pruitt-Igoe to make quick points of obvious relevance today, especially this election cycle. It is both broad and pointed, and takes much of its spirit and bluntness from the manifestos of the past that it reviews briefly, in passing. The quality of our lives today—all of us—depends on the character and quality of our housing.
Of special interest is attention to Steve Carver’s film More Than One Thing, which is a bonus feature on the DVD of Chad Freidrichs’s well-received The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. More Than One Thing has recently been restored as part of a National Film Preservation Grant. It is at the Film and Media Archive at Washington University in St. Louis and will be aired this November at the St. Louis International Film Festival. It should also be available online before long.
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