Jonathan Glancey argues that in the wake of the UK government's culling of Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and a recession which only diluted our consumerist thirst, the current aim to build cheaply has cost us design quality.
"Spending on architecture and building (not always the same thing) has fallen in real terms over the past 200 years," writes Glancey. He uses the medieval parish as an example of a society that was prepared to spend up to half it's long term budget a church. "Where once buildings were the greatest, proudest and most expensive objects money could buy, today we spend on much else besides."
Consumerism has made us philistine in comparison - the proportion of budgets spent on buildings has decreased even as the economy has grown. "Today, we simply can't, or don't want to, afford the price of meticulously wrought buildings. Britain is no longer a productive or a collective society; we are an atomistic nation of individual consumers. We might say we want better buildings, yet evidently, we don't want to pay for them."
FULL STORY: Great Architecture Doesn't Come Cheap
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Balancing Bombs and Butterflies: How the National Guard Protects a Rare Species
The National Guard at Fort Indiantown Gap uses GIS technology and land management strategies to balance military training with conservation efforts, ensuring the survival of the rare eastern regal fritillary butterfly.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service