Part IV returns from Venice with some well written reviews of the biennale:
King Rem laid into Alain a little. I felt as though I were witnessing the start of a fox hunt. I think Rem’s deluded when he states that “all architects have good intentions”, but his real frustration with dilettantes such as Alain is that he is too gentle and not constructive enough. Rem cried out “We need help!” due to the absence of criticism – a point made (although admittedly not well made) by this blogster previously. Critics nowadays are kissing starchitects’ arses because they want to publish their coffee table books. King Rem feels this lack of intelligent criticism between the authors of the built environment and their critics is leading to a real paucity of architectural quality. We are really lacking a Mumford, Huxtable, or Jacobs today. At least, that’s what I took from it.
From My Kind of Town.