Architecture and Crisis
Hyper-simplifying a complex set of events, the long illusion of the Pax Americana marked a quite stable cycle of growth and prosperity for many European cities. Not even the social tensions of the seventies, nor the oil crisis or the progressive demise of the welfare state in favour of liberalism, and the progressive extinction of the heavy industry were really able to shake their foundations. The undisputed dominance of market economy as the main city-making force had been shaping the urban environments in which we now live, work and reproduce all across Europe, with very few, notable, exceptions like the still-red Vienna.
This extended cycle of relative certainties has come to an end, quite abruptly. The signs were there since the beginning of the new millennium, with events like 9/11 or the global financial crisis suddenly offering new insights into what cities should cope with. In the meantime, the long-discussed wraith of the climate crisis started becoming more increasingly tangible, switching the public opinion from the ‘not my business’ position to a shared acknowledgment of the structural risks poised to our way of living. Climatic and conflict-related displacements of entire populations have been accelerating exponentially. Delocalization and automation almost killed the middle class, further polarizing the urban dwellers. Digitalization simultaneously killed the office and the mall, the latter one having already killed the small shops. Then the pandemic came. Now war is back to Europe and the Middle East.
Architecture needs to reinvent itself. Planning as we used to needs to massively change. Cities as we know them can’t survive. Crisis, as already intended by the ancient Greeks is as well a great opportunity. In this context of crisis, we need to develop flexible tools in order to gradually start rethinking architecture and planning.
