Martha Thorne, an American architectural scholar, curator, editor, author and urbanist, is currently the Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and Dean in at the School of Architecture and Design at IE University in Madrid.  
CA: As a society, what is our most urgent need right now in architecture and urban design" 
Thorne: Making connections between the built environment and other disciplines. We have to be conscious of the interrelated systems of city policy, rather than saying: Oh, this is a political problem or an economic or an architectural or urban-design or education problem. Those silos just don?t make sense today. As just one example, concerns about health and sustainability are directly related to the physical environment through air quality, which is in turn related to cars and parks and trees and construction materials. But they?re also related to how easy it is to walk on the sidewalk, how safe it is to bike on the road. CA: You are a North American working in a European capital. What?s happening overseas that we could learn from on this side"   
Thorne: London is the model for us, having 50 architects and designers working for the city as advisors. That?s more the exception than the rule in European capitals, but in general, Europeans understand that architecture is a cultural expression as much as a technique for building. For public buildings, competitions are the norm, and that brings cultural, symbolic and even economic value...