| | The Illegal Architect. Jonathan Hill.
At about only fifty pages, The
Illegal Architect is a slim book, even more so by the
fact that the book is half text and half illustrations,
each page of the former facing a page of the latter. Intended
as a parallel journey, the text is a criticism of the architectural
profession, the images are a hypothetical project for the
Institute of Illegal Architects. The text resonates much
more than the images, perhaps because the words are a biting,
focused critique of licensure and professional organizations,
entities that serve to perpetuate the profession while having
the adverse effect of neglecting the user's needs. Proposing
his Institute as a counter to the ARB and RIBA (British
equivalent's of the US's NCARB and AIA, respectively), the
project images don't seem as powerful as the ideas that
infuse the hypothetical building. Beyond a direct critique
of the profession, the book is loaded with ideas that question
the architect's role and methods, like the subject/object
relationship as it differs between art and architecture
and the denial of the user in architectural drawings and
photography. It's a book that should be more popular for
its breadth and succinctness, though ideally it wouldn't
have been written if architects placed the user above aesthetic
and other concerns.
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