A movement is growing against cultural appropriation, but could it spell the end for historical references in architecture" asks Phineas Harper.

Compared to other art forms, architecture gets an easy ride in the court of public opinion. Filmmakers, pop musicians and fashion designers know, one ill-judged move and they'll be hung out to dry by a swarm of social media warriors. Their reputation will be demolished in a tornado of online outrage. Condemnatory articles will follow in national newspapers. Managers and agents will hastily assemble apologetic press statements. Careers can falter, even derail. Public sensitivity, and the price of a miscalculation are high.
This form of vitriolic online criticism can be brutal, but it is a way of keeping contemporary culture aligned with rapidly evolving modern values. When a movie director's use of female nudity tips into gratuitous misogyny, for example, or a when a play's casting amounts to racial bias, are important lines to establish and regularly revise. There are, of course, times when some condemnation seems purposefully overstated to generate a readership-boosting social-media furore. Outrage means clicks after all. Generally, however, the amateur commentariat are right to insist that artists become ever-more conscientious in making work.
Architects, however, have little to fear from the Twitterati. Some high-profile news stories drag designers into the melee of public scorn, but generally we can sleep easy knowing...