IS THERE SOMETHING BEYOND 'OUTSIDE OF THE BOX'?

摘要

Today's environmental challenges and worldwide population growth demand global fundamental changes in the expectations of architecture in the 21st century and require a radically new kind of system for human development. This is more urgent and avant-garde than the current conversations in this issue of /D, which have lost sight of the big picture and have become obsessed with details that do nothing to change a toxic system of architectural practice. The issue simply does not go far enough to address the architectural frameworks, methods, professional bodies and educational practices that have become institutionalised bad habits that serve their industrial masters. It urges us to redefine ecological design research through empirical measurements, to consider new scales of operation, reassess time frames, examine energy efficiency and evaluate building performance. Yet these parameters indicate that the advocates are already trapped within the frameworks they propose to challenge. Inevitably, then, they suggest that less of more of the same kind of approach is warranted. It is not. More of the same, with variations on a common theme, is not a different trajectory than that which already exists. Probing questions must be raised about the current context and expectations of architecture that have become ensnared within an industrial worldview.