Against Architecture

Description

According to the renowned anthropologist and architect Franco La Cecla, modern architecture has lost its way and its true function. A modern generation of 'archistars' is now more concerned with building their own brand, with little or no thought given to context and those who will actually live and inhabit the spaces that they create. Yet this is not merely a diatribe against the world for which La Cecla trained, it is also a call to rethink urban space, to take cities back from what he calls 'Casino Capitalism'.

Franco La Cecla is a renowned anthropologist and architect. In 2005 he founded Architecture Social Impact Assessment (ASIA), an agency that evaluates the social impact of architectural and city planning projects. He is currently in production with Radiotelevisione Italiana on a series based on Against Architecture.

"To tell the truth, Franco La Cecla is not wrong. There is too much building, sometimes only to put a signature, a stamp on a spot, without any worry about the people who are going to live there. In other situations it is easy to be used by the institutions that support speculation. It is the reason why I refused many projects, because, I am lucky--and I can choose." --Renzo Piano in La Repubblica "La Cecla's book is a delight, in the way that he dismantles the glory of the 'archistar' in their proud myopic grandeur that totally ignores people and their rights to a better urban life." --Sebastian Courtois, La Reforme