Promotion: architect David Chipperfield has delivered a critique of his profession as part of a panel discussion at the Design Doha Forum that is now available to stream on Dezeen.
Chipperfield spoke alongside Design Museum London director Tim Marlow and Qatari architect Ibrahim Jaidah on a Design Doha Forum (DDF) panel titled "Agent of change: how design shapes society and culture".
Moderated by DDF editorial director Jelena Trkulja, the panel looked at ways that design and architecture were having both a positive and negative impact on lifestyles, culture and the environment.
David Chipperfield, Tim Marlow and Ibrahim Jaidah spoke at a panel at the Design Doha Forum
Chipperfield expressed a sense of anxiety about the idea of technical progress and its consequences today, especially in regards to social changes and the environmental crisis. "I think we've changed our idea of what progress is itself. For the first time in my life, I would say there's a certain loss of confidence in the absolute notion of progress," he said.
He added that cultural heritage, identity and the problems of globalism were all "expressions of anxiety", which could be traced back to consumerism and its effects on resources and the climate.
Chipperfield said that although the most critical decisions about the built environment were made further up the "food chain", before the involvement of architects, they nevertheless had been part of a process that has chan...