Architecture has long been considered an art and a science, although architects – in effort to raise design’s respectability higher than that of the “cappuccino crowd” – relentlessly try to clear the blurred lines between them.
I read the article on page 73 of the July Record. As you know, it's an argument between academics, which, the headline would suggest is about the end of theory.
It erupted as a primal scream from a frazzled-looking conventioneer leaning against a wall, hair askew, punctuated by a complaint repeated by others in corridors and grand spaces: “Get me out of here!” Not everyone felt it; many, if not most, reveled in the mix.
Something’s in the air. Call it community-based design. Call it architecture for people. In any understanding, socially conscious architecture seems to be blossoming again.
You are in store for a visual treat. In this issue, we celebrate 50 years of Record Houses by including a collection of 10 private residences from around the world, most in stunning natural settings—flung out into the desert, perched by the water, clipped to hillsides.