Sex, Death, and Architecture - Richard Ingersoll

Architectural criticism is essentially a contradiction in terms. Very seldom do those writing about architecture (including this author) permit themselves to wake up from what during the Iraq war we learned to call “embedded journalism.” This is for several obvious reasons: the majority of architectural publications (the kind that pay their writers) are promotional literature tied to the design professions; the majority of people writing about architecture come from within the trade, do not know how to write well, and do not have much critical perspective; the audience for architectural publications remains primarily interested in illustrations and prefers not to read. Thus, even if a writer were able to pen a scintillating thesis that spoke as powerfully about architecture as the sex drive or the death wish, chances are it a) will get edited beyond recognition by the publishers; or b) it will be overlooked by the readership. The Architect’s Newspaper in NYC began as a very fresh set of voices, as has the Giornale di Architettura published in Torino, and both have been able to puncture through the professional censorship. Architectural web sites often recapitulate the same problems as the professional publications, but in a few instances – I’m thinking of Luigi Prestinenza Pugliesi’s blog, “presS/Tletter,” which is curated by several young architects – they have created a rubric or resistance. Perhaps what architecture needs is the equivalent of Wikileaks, an Archileaks would have a certain profundity already in its title. In this talk I will discuss the process that I go through as a critic, looking at a few cases, and propose what I would like to read in Archileaks.

Richard Ingersoll is an architectural historian, critic, and educator based in Montevarchi, Italy. Since completing his studies in San Francisco, Paris, and Urbino, he has taught at a variety of universities in the U.S. and Europe. He served as the editor of Design Book Review and is the author of several books, including Sprawltown - Looking for the city on its edges (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006). This year his most recent book, Architecture and the World: A Cross-Cultural History of the Built Environment, will appear in Oxford University Press. Professor Ingersoll contributes regularly to a variety of international journals.