As much as the blogosphere often turns crucial issues into soap-operatic fodder, it also keeps us honest to a degree that didn’t exist before. What has emerged is an architecture criticism less contemplative, perhaps, but more nimble — and better attuned to its audience, in ways good and bad. Martin Pawley might not recognize this new criticism right away, but even he, I think, would have to admit its heartbeat is plenty strong. — Christopher Hawthorne, Architectural Record
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I liked this bit:
...for every blogger whose prose voice seems to have emerged fully formed, like Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG, there are 10 others whose work — overlong, prone to self-absorption, and still struggling to get a handle on the it’s/its dilemma...
I also liked that he used the word nimble, my favorite recently in describing successful current practice.
What has emerged is an architecture criticism less contemplative, perhaps, but more nimble — and better attuned to its audience, in ways good and bad.
So IMO while architectural practice and critique need to be nimble, the act of building still needs to be contemplative: slow, considered, quality. Not to imply that there can't be amazing small temporary structures, of course. Just that the act of putting a material object in the world is still fraught with challenges that the act of critiquing the object - in the twitterverse - doesn't face.
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