Is this the end?

‘This is the end, my only friend the end.’

I’ll be honest I do have other friends, but sadly this is the end of this series of outpourings (I’m self aware enough to know I’ve lost the battle with restraint on several occasions over the last 8 weeks), and hopefully you’ve picked up on why I use a lot of music and film references? I’ll explain anyway even though I know you got it really, it’s our old friend context again, nothing happens in a vacuum even architecture. We can’t really tackle a subject without acknowledging what is effecting, directly or indirectly, the people and happenings we’re talking about.

There’s some irony in our subject matter this week, we’ve already talked about capitalism and nuclear war and the general end of the world it seems fitting that the end of this blog should focus on the country that many believe will or could have been responsible for the end of us all. The text of choice is USA by John Dos Passos, in particular 3 biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Ford and Torstein Veblen.

So three very different people, an architect (well this is an architecture blog), a car maker and a thinker/author. Now I know what you’re thinking ‘what have these guys got in common apart from all having carked it?’ well its tragedy, they all had ideas which they hoped would change the world, but in some cases ended up recoiling away from it, in case you hadn’t already guessed we’re not dealing with a great deal of happiness today, so if your disposition leans towards the negative now may be the time to pop a happy pill.

Henry Ford changed production forever let’s not mess around on that one, his ideas on mass production, ‘the production line’, have effected manufacturing and are still evident today. How he achieved this was probably in no small way effected by his megalomaniacal side, we’ve all got one some of us are better at keeping it in check than others! Ford believed that progression would be achieved through values; his values to be specific, Ford decided that his workers shouldn’t drink, smoke, gamble or get into debt. Sounds like a real bucket of fun this guy, haven’t got one of those happy pills spare have you? For all his success Ford recoiled away from society, recreating his childhood in a rural small town with no roads!

Torstein next, well you didn’t think i was going to let you skip through anything by cutting straight to the architect did you? Famously dubbed the man, who couldn’t say yes, he refused to compromise on his principles, would agree to anything that might impinge on his modus operandi. He’s a little like the character Paul in Decline and Fall, can’t get in the game, prefers to sit watching the people struggling on the wheel of life. Veblen ended up living in a shack in Palo Alto.

So finally we’re at Frank Lloyd Wright and we’ve only got ourselves another megalomaniac, what are the odds? Frank was known for bullying his clients; he famously insisted one client must forgo having a bed in their shiny new house and sleep on a futon! I think i said it last week, what kind of architect are you if you don’t actually deliver something that works for your client, if it doesn’t work from them then what’s the point!!

Frank had his share of tragedy; his own home burnt to the ground twice, and was the site of  

So this is all great but what does it mean? Henry saw his dreams come true and recoiled from the world he changed, Veblen sought to understand the world and succeeded, perhaps understanding the US population better than almost anyone, and he recoiled away from it. Now Frank he, like Corbusier never saw his dreams come true, they never saw their new utopian cities created. Would he have recoiled away from that city? Would it be another Milton Keynes?

‘you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain’ – that’s Batman, now I’m not suggesting that these guys are villains although I’m not sure that there’s ever been a heroic megalomaniac – answers on a post card. I’m suggesting there megalomaniacal tendencies blocked their path to the changes to humanity they were desperate to make, we rarely get anywhere entirely on our own after all.

So who’s the odd one out, drum roll please............. its Torstein! While Ford and Frank Busied themselves building monuments to their ideals that would stand long after they were gone, Torstein only sought to understand, requesting at the end that there be no ceremony, no memorial built. Just goes to show if you stop the me me me for 5 minutes you might come up with some ideas you can live with long term and there’s where the virtue is my friend.  

Decline down by the old Fountainhead

Words by Mike Judd & Thom Yorke


‘A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals.’


I’m quoting films again, Men in Black this time, it’s a very universal medium film some good lessons if you know where to look. Now I’m assuming you’re not reading this aloud to a bloodthirsty mob, all of whom are calling for my head, so I’m going to assume you’re the smart person I hope you to be and we can rattle along as normal.


That baying mob is part of what we’re dealing with today folks, the mob and the representation of them forms a major character in the Fountainhead. Now when I say the fountainhead we’re talking about the film rather than the book, I’ll confess I’m not sure I could have coped with the book it’s layered on pretty thick in the film and any more than 2 hours of it probably would have sent me back to that dark room we talked about last week.... ‘For a minute there I lost myself, I lost myself.’


Decline and fall is the counterpoint today, written between the world wars, it’s a comic tragedy set against the backdrop of the decline (hence the title, I like the obvious sometimes, it’s reassuring don’t you think?) of the British class system.


So we’ve got two stories both with architects as central characters (I can’t think of two many storeys like that, I think Three men and a baby had an architect in but I don’t think it’s got quite the same weight as these) one set in the good old USA and one routed right here in blighty.


Our two architects couldn’t be more different, in Decline and Fall professor Sillineus cuts a pretty forlorn figure, he’s not built much (a chewing gum factory in eastern Europe) he doesn’t sleep, he hates everything he’s done and he thinks the only buildings that work are factories because they house machines not people. I’ll admit I started cacking myself when I read that, as a young(ish) man at the start of my architectural career the idea of ending up like that had those Radiohead songs swirling round my head again.......’ For a minute there I lost myself, I lost myself’.


Must keep a clear head, we’re close to the end I can’t let this slide into negativity. Although id be remiss if we didn’t talk about Sillineus’s giant stone cold bummer to end them all, his big theory is that life is like a spinning wheel – people get on they fall they get back up again the fall again and again, very few get to the middle and when you’re there it’s not moving, you’ve reached equilibrium. He then tells Paul the main character that he is a watcher, not made to get on the wheel at all, but instead to stand on the side lines watch others living. Wow not sure I’d take being told I’m like that, I’m mean come on you might slip over once or twice on the wheel but deep down you know it’s a giggle. Although watching people fall over is a giggle too, pop ‘face plants’ into youtube you’ll see what I mean.


Now a man of definite intelligence posed the question, is it impossible not to feel sorry for rourke? – the architect in the fountainhead. Err in a word yes; I can’t get onside with anyone who says they don’t care what the people who inhabit one of their buildings think about it. Now it’s worth pointing out at this point that the character of Rourke is based on Frank Lloyd Wright, and he like Wright will offer no explanation of method or end product. Now it’s at this exact moment, right here right now that you should be saying to yourself oh yeah just like Zaha Hadid in the first of these blogs!!!! It’s implied that you’re supposed to worship these guys and any explanation would shatter the god like mystic they’ve created. Can you imagine the average architect essentially telling their client to go fuck themselves if they want to make any changes to a design? I’ve got to say I’ve always found reasoning with a client to be a more productive discourse.


Again we’re in need of background to all this, like last week we’re in interesting times when the fountainhead was written, we’ve got communism (you know my feelings on ism’s I’m trying to remain calm), the reality of nuclear obliteration (heavy, really heavy). It’s this fear that brings the mob into play here, when people don’t understand something they have a tendency to fear it, the same goes for buildings, Rourke finds himself in a battle with the banner a news paper which represents the baying mob. They deplore his new buildings that have no reference to past styles, indeed when a client suggests adding some period features to a design he declares that he’d rather it wasn’t built at all.


I’m going to float this idea, hopefully its sits well, I don’t think it’s something new they’re against it’s the lack of explanation. If the mob were ambivalent to the self indulgent god complex brigade (I’m talking to you here Hadid!!) if there wasn’t such frenzy would these people get on as well as they do? would they actually explain themselves if they weren’t so entrenched? If there were no wall of opinion to push back against would they just fall over?.......’phew for a minute there I lost myself, I lost myself’