Is criticism under threat? Are critics compromised in an age of rapid production?

Abstract

This symposium, held at Building Design Partnership's offices on 21 September, was jointly organised by the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA), and its Chair, Dennis Sharp, and the Architecture Foundation, represented on the panel by its Director, Rowan Moore. The topic under investigation was the challenges posed to the critic by a period of massive architectural production: are critics being swamped by the quantity of new buildings, thus reducing the quality of criticism? In addition, is honest criticism held in check by the corporate power of architects, in a world where even ‘art house’ partnerships are now commonly ten times larger than their 1960s counterparts? In a panel of six distinguished critics, one might have expected to find at least six different opinions on any subject. The surprising thing about this symposium was the level of consensus that emerged.