I just read the headline that Foster + Partners will lay off 25% of their staff this follows on the heels of layoffs by SOM, Perkins Eastmen, and countless large and small firms around the country and the world. News articles talk about “hunkering down” and riding the depression/recession out and compare this architectural bloodbath to the job market during the recession of the 1990’s. Projects across the world are on hold, and the mega development of Dubai has virtually ground to a standstill.
All that I can think of in regards to all of this is Douglas Adam’s The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the lost planet of Magrathea; this planet could be a parable for Dubai and Las Vegas. This was where custom worlds were created when the galactic economy was in a major boom cycle and there was plenty of cash to spare. Once the economy dried up, the planet shut down and went to sleep, literally. Everyone went into suspended animation/cold storage until the galactic stock market index rose high enough that their services would be affordable again.
I almost have to wonder if the practice of architecture and the current avant garde design trends will suffer a similar fate: I don’t think It will be as extreme as a shut down, but a transition to a non-built culture. These architects may not be able to find the kind of clients/patrons willing and able to pay for their brand of architectural exploration, instead they may need to move back towards a Learning from Las Vegas design culture, where architectural thought will occur within the confines of academia and the printed/pixellated page. If this is the case, we may be looking at the gestalt that causes architects to search yet again for more purity in form and less architecture of fancy and ornament; we may be looking at the pre-dawn of a new style of architecture.
2 thoughts on “Magrathea, is that you?”
You must log in to post a comment.