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RADAR
FEATURES
COMMENT
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| | REFLECTION
| CRITICISM |
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Bruce Angle and Associates cartoons by Geoffrey
Atherden were featured in Architecture Australiafrom
January 1984 to June 1990 and illustrated the
associated publication What, if anything, is an
architect?by Tom Heath.
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NAOMI STEAD’S “Three Complaints about Architectural Criticism” has generated
more response from readers than any other single item published in Architecture
Australia in the last few years ( Architecture Australia vol 92 no 6, Nov/Dec 2003). Letters
to the editor, an unsolicited article in response, informal comment and third-hand gossip
all indicate that these two simply presented pages – text-heavy with no pictures – have
impressed our readers to an unexpected extent. Not everyone agrees with Naomi’s
analysis of the state of criticism in Australia, but most, it seems, are pleased that the
magazine has generated an occasion for discussion.
We, in turn, are delighted at the response. Editors and writers are, of course,
interested in the fraught complexities of criticism. How do we present and write about
work? What are reasonable boundaries for criticism? What are the responsibilities of
critic, architect, photographer and editor? What is possible in the context of a
professional journal? Questions of this kind are always, implicitly, under consideration.
It is encouraging that the wider profession also thinks such issues worth contemplating.
This interest in the role of criticism suggests that the profession and discipline are in
good heart. It also suggests that the frequent refrain “I only look at the pictures” is not
quite true. (Although images, of course, have their own critical cultures and effects.)
The desire for a strong (which is not the same as negative) critical culture suggests
a healthy profession, one in which architects are confident enough to allow their work to
have its own life, a life which might exceed or differ from their intentions. In turn, such a
strong critical culture is vital to the ongoing viability and richness of the profession.
Criticism has many functions and many modes – it is not a simple matter of
declaring a work “good” or “bad”, although the exercise of judgment has its place. Nor
does it simply reiterate what the architect thought she or he was doing. Good criticism
involves interpretation, but the frame of interpretation may vary widely – a result of both
the particulars of the project and the background and interests of the critics. Effective
criticism brings varied types of knowledge and experience to bear on a work. It opens a
project to the wider world, while also using the specificities of a project to reflect on
more general conditions. It might place a project in a historical, political or theoretical
context; it might convey a sense of experiential pleasures; or it might use the project to
reflect on the disciplinary structures of architecture. The best criticism tells both architect
and reader something they didn’t already know.
At Architecture Australia we commission writers who have some affinity with the
work in question – who will have something productive to say about it, whether positive
or negative. We also believe that it is vital to have a range of voices in the public realm.
There are strong alliances between certain architects and critics – these are often
effective but it is important to introduce other voices and other frames for interpretation.
We aim for a richness and complexity of interpretation, rather than the reiteration of
accepted responses and explanations.
Criticism always occurs within certain parameters – pragmatic, social, economic.
The critic, editor and publisher must negotiate these constraints, just as an architect
must negotiate the many constraints that attend any project. Within these parameters,
Architecture Australia seeks to foster a critical culture and to broadly reflect the real
achievements of the profession. Part of this involves commissioning analytical and
speculative essays, such as “Three Complaints about Architectural Criticism”. As
Architecture Australia makes its way through its centenary year, such essays are as
important for reflecting on where we might go as for reflecting on where we have been.
JUSTINE CLARK
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Copyright © 2010 Architecture Media Pty Ltd
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