ETHICS, GEOPOLITICS, AND ARCHITECTURE

摘要

I don't think of architecture as an especially political discipline. Sure, there are the (typically quiet) politics of place-making, which are an important consideration with every project, even where they're not self-evident. Every building embodies some point of view or other, often deriving from the economics of its development or the power-base of its owner. Consider the differences between, say, a corporate high-rise and an urban nonprofit SRO. But architecture usually doesn't play much of a role on the grand stages of legislation and diplomacy, other than as a dramatic backdrop or as the occasional political football, a la the Eisenhower Memorial. So a recent flurry of news stories involving the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Israeli Association of United Architects, the International Union of Architects (UIA), and Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory came as a big surprise.