SKIN OBSESSION - BILLBOARD ARCHITECTURE - SUPER...MODELS
When did we become sooo obsessed with skin...
I'm not naive...I realize there is something erotic about skin...human skin that is...but it seems of late our buildings have grown a skin of there own...One wonders is it in an aim to cover and disguise something a little more sinister... Are these pretty patterns and three dimensional craftings of sometimes nothing more than layered cladding, just a smoke screen...enticing the eye but bamboozling the client..some Architects have gone as far as to entwine a complex pattern into an external structural systems...some how trying to warrant the obscure patterns as a requirement and development of design...
...maybe a little cliche but where are our mothers' voices....
..."don't judge a book by its cover !"...
..."its what's inside that counts!"...
I do hope we have not reduced ourselves to mere advertising agents...assisting our clients to market their floor space or property...producing "billboard architecture"
Lets hope we still remember ...that good design stands the test of time...and a building that works well for its owner and its user..is more than a pretty facade....
...and is likely to be the best investment for any client...
...and the best advertisment for any Architect...
meanwhile....even I buy a magazine or two to look at the pretty pics...
Let us just hope that in their case beauty is more than skin deep...
