The 2018 edition of the annual The Progress 1000: London's most influential people list has been released, and among the myriad of categories from the worlds of politics, entertainment, art, philanthropy, sports, technology, or science, there is (phew) also a list of architects who made the most significant impact on London.
Donning the cover pic, and listed first, is Eva Franch i Gilabert, the new, and first female, director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, immediately followed by some of the (expected) biggest names in British architecture, such as David Chipperfield, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, David Adjaye, Amanda Levete, Thomas Heatherwick, and Patrik Schumacher.
Refreshing to see are names of architects who have been consistently putting out solid work and are now getting the wider recognition they deserve, including Frida Escobedo, the youngest architect yet to be invited to design the Serpentine Gallery’s summer pavilion, Deborah Saunt and David Hills of DSDHA, Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald of 6a Architects, Simon Allford, Jonathan Hall, Paul Monaghan, Peter Morris of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), Peter Barber, Asif Khan, Sadie Morgan of dRMM, Simon Henley and Gavin Hale-Brown of Henley Halebrown, or Laura Sanjuan and Russell Potter of SODA.
Rounding off the illustrious list are a few seasoned architects tirelessly campaigning for the profession and its role in society, such as Elsie Owusu, the Ghanaian-born and very outspoken candidate in this year's race to become the new president of the RIBA, Peter Murray, Chairman of New London Architecture and frequent contributor to Archinect's City Diaries feature series, and Postmodernism icon Terry Farrell.
Find the complete Architecture list over at the Evening Standard.
8 Comments
I've been saving this quote (on my phone) from Eva Franch i Gilabert since she was appointed to the AA:
"I did apply to the director's job with a sense of duty, and on behalf if you want, of all of those who care about architecture and how it relates to the world we live in."
It's both inspirational and grounding to me to hear someone say they feel a sense of duty to a discipline, beyond just what that discipline can add to their personal resume. How often does one hear similar sentiments from men? I'm glad it's changing.
that last sentence is completely unnecessary and irrelevant
I'm at my current job out of a sense of duty to our discipline, society and planet, yet don't feel the need to boast about it in formal statements like that (until now perhaps!) It is actually a very masculine and traditional statement in my opinion, appropriating architecture like that, claiming it for all out there that care apparently. Yet with that statement ignoring those that don't care or have bigger worries. Wouldn't it be nice to, for once have an AA director (male or female) that would say they felt a sense of duty to those that didn't care about architecture? Those people with serious struggles who might benefit from architecture without realising, where architecture could mean leverage to a better existence? Eva displays a total inward looking point of view in this statement, I'm very disappointed actually, why she doesn't do it on behalf of the other 99%? Didn't she learn anything from recent times? And even though I care deeply about architecture, I don't feel she took that job on behalf of me.
Yeah, I knew that last sentence would piss people - men - off. I just can’t help being a smartass lately - it’s almost better than yoga!
It's called trolling ;)
It's more like "sending a signal".
In this case I'd go for "to antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/troll
smart =\= dumb.. do more inversions!
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.