Coverage of the architecture industry and its (very) many discontents often delves into conflicts that reflect movements for change in the arts, law, academia, and business culture. The value of focusing on these stories at year's end extends beyond their subjects and results in a critical analysis of how far we still have to go in each area. Once again, the past year of news has provided us with a useful mix of lessons that help define the current state of architecture. Below is a look at some of the biggest controversies of 2023.

What would ordinarily be the year’s biggest architectural media event, the 2023 Venice Biennale, unfolded with nearly as many critiques and false starts concerned with its execution and curators as it had compelling artistic feats and worthy demonstrations of the power of design.

Patrik Schumacher’s wrought Facebook invective decrying a supposed lack of architecture at the exhibition had too many constituent parts and counterarguments (for example, the inclusion of many professional architects that he acknowledges throughout) to name but was successful at least at priming a debate about the shifting identity of cultural displays and biennials.

Schumacher said: “What we are witnessing here is the discursive self-annihilation of the discipline” before stopping to name what he sees as ascendant trends in curatorial, academic, and professional spheres leading into The Laboratory of the Future. Curator Lesley Lokko preceded his words with her own incisive statements in an introductory press conference address that warned us about not letting the “old familiar tale” of exclusion related to the Italian government’s refusal to grant entry to visa-holding curators traveling from Ghana turn into “the defining story” of the six-month showcase.

China, according to Schumacher, the “only pavilion to show architecture” at the Biennale, provided a fitting bookend to the drama after it withdrew entirely over Pulitzer Prize winner Alison Killing's “fake news” investigation into the treatment of the ethnic Uyghur minority, shedding light on the Mongolküre detention camp in Xinjiang province for the first time.

David Adjaye went from being one of the architectural stars showcased at that biennale to one of the industry’s more contemptible and tragic names after three separate accusers came forward in a Financial Times exclusive detailing sexual misconduct they endured while employed at his firm. The women later went public to add detail to their claims after having their identities threatened online. Something shared was that the Architects' Journal declined to take their stories out of an apparent lack of resources. It would join the rest of us in spending the remaining summer reporting on the spate of major project cancellations and other employee testimonials that followed in the story's wake.

NEOM, one project Adjaye would have been contributing to along with an ever-expanding roster of leading architects, tainted its glittering announcements of resort expansions with human rights violations stemming from the pending execution of three tribesmen from the northern Tabuk where segments of The Line are being planned.

They were reportedly “pressured” into accepting $3,000 USD cash offers from the Saudi government before their sentencing. The dollar amounts being offered to architects on the estimated $500 billion project turned into one of many critical forlorns.

Snøhetta’s internal strife was a news headline aside from the firm's usual stream of projects that consistently win awards and lead to more commissions. Behind the scenes, they were the subject of the second documented attempt at a major firm to unionize staff in both the New York and San Francisco offices. News of its failure by just 6 votes came with a charge by Architectural Workers United that the firm deployed anti-union tactics. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is still reviewing those and other details relating to their claim.

Peder Anker’s featured op-ed against what he found to be a Putinist exhibition at The Cooper Union led to its brief postponement before censorship cries led the school to remount an amended version “expanded” by historic-political contexts that were sensitive to the present-day war in Ukraine.

Finally, the two-year Munger Hall saga ended at the University of California, Santa Barbara with the project’s official cancellation coming just weeks before Charles Munger passed away at 99. An August RFP released by the school spelled the end of the windowless pursuit of the amateur designer. Munger got some controversial words in prior to the end, reminding a MarketWatch podcast that “architecture is a game of trade-offs” and then claiming he would rather “be a billionaire and not be loved by everybody than not have any money.”

Be sure to follow Archinect's special End of the Year coverage by following the tag 2023 Year In Review to stay up to date.