Architecture criticism

Architecture criticism is the act of writing or speaking about a building, usually of historical importance or novel design or built in a notable public space.

Most major national newspapers of first world countries cover the arts in some form and architecture criticism may be included as a part of this arts coverage. Some newspapers, however, carry their architecture reviews with the real estate section or the Home & Style supplement.^[1]

In addition there may exist specialist media to cover any artistic discipline and so some devoted to architectural coverage. Architectural Review is an example of such a periodical

As with other forms of criticism it uses its own technical language to convey what the reviewer has seen.

Ada Louise Huxtable was the first full time architecture critic working for an American daily newspaper when the New York Times gave her the role in 1963^[1]. Lewis Mumford, though, had written extensively on architecture in the nineteen thirties, forties and fifties at the New Yorker.^[1]

Considerations

Amongst matters for consideration when reviewing a building may be:

• Aesthetics - whether the building is pleasing to the eye.
• Functionality - whether the building meets the needs of the client and those who will use the building.
• Style - see Category:Architectural styles for examples of these.
• Building materials - discussion of the choice of these and whether wise or unwise.
• Environment - does the building fit into its surroundings, whether those surroundings consist of other buildings or of a natural landscape. Also, of increasing importance these days, is the building environmentally friendly (regarding such things as energy consumption, pollution, renewable materials).
• Context - asking how the building relates to projects built around the same time (contemporaneous projects) or by the same architect.

Indeed those considerations should be thought over by the architect: it is the critic's task to assess how successful the architect (and others involved with the project) have been in meeting both the criteria the project set out to meet and the criteria that the critic himself feels to be important.

Contemporary critics

Contemporary critics working for major newspapers include:

• Jonathan Glancey of The Guardian^[2]
• Paul Goldberger of The New Yorker
• Christopher Hawthorne of The Los Angeles Times
• Edwin Heathcote of The Financial Times
• Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune
• Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times
• Rowan Moore of The Observer
• Nicolai Ouroussoff formerly of The New York Times
• Hugh Pearman of The Sunday Times^[3]

Specialised periodicals

• Architectural Review
• The Architect's Newspaper

See also

• American architecture writers category.
• International Committee of Architectural Critics

References

External links

• "The Dark Knights Return: four profoundly unfashionable buildings in London"
  • Hugh Pearman, architecture critic of The Sunday Times, analyses architecture critics' responses (including his own) to postmodernism and unfashionability.
• Weinstein, Norman (2008-05-28). "Built on Soaring Words". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23768543-25192,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-09. 
  • This article, whilst not an example of architectural criticism, describes the importance of architectural students developing a strong vocabulary with which to describe buildings.
• Our critics' advice - The Guardian July 8, 2008.
  • In this article Jonathan Glancey gives advice to young, ambitious, would-be architecture critics.