For the sake of argument, let's say that Bashar al-Assad is on the phone. He wants her to build him a prison in Damascus. "Well, I wouldn't mind building in Syria," she shrugs. "I'm an Arab and if it helps people, if it's an opera house or a parliament building, something for the masses, I would do it. But if someone asks me to build a prison, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't build a prison, irrespective of where it is, even if it was very luxurious." — the guardian
She won't build a prison? How many buildings have been designed, and constructed where the intent is one thing, and the ultimate use has been for something quite nefarious?
I don't care who she builds for, ultimately she has to live with those decisions, but she can't be this naive, and expect not to be taken to task, for her blindness.
I am sure there are many Syrians that would see her buildings in Syria, as extensions of the oppression by the Assad regime, and might even find that those small, windowless rooms, quite appropriate for torture.
12 Comments
don't hate the player, hate the game!
Now, I know you can't do my assignment for me, but is there any kind of hate I should keep in mind?
Quondam, my take is the reason she would not design a prison is that she'd be rather effective at designing one. Piranesi's prisons were more of fantasy correct? Seemingly more allegory than something to be realized? As for prisons, there are some, in countries where all human beings have value, that actually benefit the occupant and much less punitive than for profit American Super Max prisons.
I loved her decision.
Whatever she says becomes a news item. She has to be pointy and controversial. And, downplay her corporate interests and practice. She won't design prisons but have no problem for working for dictators who imprisons their people for anything against their reign. Nice guilt free word stew with a veiled larger meaning.
She is just so damned principled...
This article is problematic in several ways. As someone pointed out on twitter, why focus on how she lives? Or whether she wants children or not? No one asks that question of male architects. And so she told her PR guy to stop messing around with his phone during an interview, and that's supposed to illustrate what? That she's mean? Playing with your phone during an interview is bad PR, I wouldn't be surprised if she fired him.
Questions like "would you design a prison in Syria?" are eyerolling attempts to play 'gotcha!' This is like when kids ask each other: "would you rather eat a hundred bugs, or a pound of dirt?" Petty schoolyard stuff.
^^Quondam: exactly.^^
Fred I agree with your point about the assertions regarding her personal life and the other sexist questions, and those questions had me cringing, but that question about Syria? Come on, that was as softball and given the discussion about this particular point in the passed few years; Rem, Holl, and others, it seemed to me less conjecture, and more of an opportunity to make a larger political statement. After all, she is from Iraq, and would have more to say about the region, perhaps, than any other architect going. Instead, she comes off as 1% she always was, and is, and that's the problem; her failure to see that building for clowns, only adds to the suffering, and not relieves said suffering. She is a tool.
....even if it was very luxurious....
A yes-no question regarding building for an oppressive dictator doesn't seem like playing "gotcha."
some people have nothing better to do than complain about starchitects.
none of her buildings will become prisons anytime soon.
#gossipcolumnswetdream
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