Why we can thank infrastructure for the victory of the avant-garde

摘要

Over Christmas I have found that twice as many drunken people lurch over to me at parties with a straight question than at other times. Their question goes something like this: 'How can it be that all sorts of weird buildings are being put up nowadays and nobody ever protests when 20 years ago all hell broke loose if you so much as mentioned putting up a small office block in the City of London?' Despite the fact that 90 per cent of these ques- tioners cannot tell the difference between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Jacques Yves Cousteau, their question is a valid one that deserves an answer. So, instead of engaging in dubious futurology, as I usually do at this time of year, I am going to tackle it.