Forces of Change: Past and Present

Richard M. Bennett begins his article entitled, “The Direction of Architecture,”by outlining the forces of change in architecture in 1946:“Although concern with its [architecture’s] future directionmust begin with the social and economic forces that activateour time, the final considerations that seem most provocativetoday are: (1) change in the architect’s scope and methods;(2) greater concern on the part of architects with city and regional planning; (3) a more organic relation to nature; (4) newmaterials and technologies….”His observations were based on the time he lived and practiced, but one couldeasily assume that they were made about the current state of practice. Manyof the issues that he has raised are relevant to architectural education andpractice today. Economic factors, unemployment among architects, sustainability,digital tools, and transformation in building technologies have led usto a point where architecture and the role of the architect are on uncertaingrounds. In January 2011, Architectural Record asked, ‘What Now?’ In hisintroduction to the topic, editor Clifford A. Pearson provided an insight intothe mood of the profession, “ …the start of 2011 seems like a particularlyconfusing moment with architects facing a crossroads in terms of social andprofessional priorities, economic concerns, and design approaches.” One hasto ask, what does change mean in architecture? Are the current themes ofchange new? Or are the questions the same? Do architects have the ability todevelop answers to the current challenges any better than in the past? Whatcan be learned from the profession’s previous endeavors?This paper will examine change in architecture by reviewing and analyzingscholarly journals such as Journal of Architectural Education and trademagazines such as Architectural Record from the twentieth and twenty-firstcenturies. These sources will be used to identify the issues and look forpatterns within the profession. The goals are to give our current discussionof change context, identify previous stumbling blocks, and highlight theunique challenges/opportunities of our time.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1