Towards a New Century

On Architecture

Architecture has long neglected human sensations of how one feels space.
Today's design are sensationalist and superficial, not taking into account our spiritual as well as sensual needs.
For a building to be considered whole, it needs to contain the spiritual, philosophical, aesthetic as well as practical elements.
If buildings lack poetry, cities lack soul and citizens become machines.


From Sketch to Creation

On Society

Each decade overlaps by a few years into the next.
The sixties really ended in the early seventies.
Likewise, each century and millennium overlap into the next.
May I suggest that the 21st century just started in the Fall of 2008 and that the debacle that we are experiencing is only a major clean-up of all excesses amassed throughout the 20Th century.
We now need to design our new era.
Let us then become optimists again and build (despite the credit crunch!)


On Real Estate

There is a French saying: "Quand la construction va, tout va" (when construction is well all is well).
We see what is happening to the economy due to a massive construction slowdown as a result of a major housing slump.
What has to happen is a re-structuring of real estate usage.
Here are a few thoughts:
1- Major department stores will be a thing of the past, small is now beautiful again and we may see smaller stores offering locally made goods as well as "green" products replace big stores in our downtowns.
2-As energy price rise and condo prices dive, and rest assured they will, more families will move back to city cores to save on travel time and expense leading to large conversions of commercial spaces into residential.
3-Specialty high-tech stores imaged after the Apple stores will increase as we already hear that Microsoft is planning such stores.
4-Discount stores such as Cost Plus, Costco, Walmart, Target etc... will find their way into city cores perhaps with an urban version of their big box concept.
5-As cities will see an increase in population, suburbs will get emptied.
6-As more inexpensive and unused land will become available in the suburbs, small boutique farming will take their place to save on transportation cost as well as to satisfy health conscious urbanites.
7-As a result of all those factors, construction activity will pick up in the cities to build and convert space for housing and will increase in the suburbs to demolish outdated housing tracks and shopping center and grade the land for farming.

On Consumerism

As a Professor of Architecture, I often gage trends from my young students.
A year ago, one student told me she had some 40 pairs of tennis shoes made in China for a total cost of $4,800 and that she purchases an average of 10 pairs per year.
This year (2009), I asked the same questions with very different answers!
My female students would rather have 1 nice LV bag (made in France) or a pair of Italian made $300 shoe rather than waisting money on low grade items.
This made me think that the days of manic consumerism are gone and hopefully for a long time.
It seems that the European approach which prevailed until the mid 70's has made a comeback.
Back are the days when the british would buy a burberry's trenchcoat and a Brigg's umbrella for life and gone are the days of cheap short lasting goods, or so I am hoping!