As the 2020s begin, what will the next decade hold for architecture asks Aaron Betsky.

Crystal balls are notoriously cloudy, tea leaves open to many interpretations, and, according to science fiction films such as Blade Runner, by now we would all be living with replicants. Future predictions are more wishful ? or dreadful ? scenarios, fairy tales we tell ourselves about our destiny. So herewith some stories for a century that is exiting childhood and moving into early adulthood.
The Roaring Twenties Redux will be about reuse. If the last decade in design saw the construction of monuments to the victory of corporatised computer and communication technologies ? which is to say blobs, super-thin skyscrapers for the super-rich, and a mindless minimalism befitting an age in which style is just an app that creates a social media layer ? the next one will see the return of the real. Our agenda must be to reuse, rethink, reimagine, and relive our present
That means a realisation that the earth is ours to lose; or rather, that we are engaged in self-destruction that points to an imminent post-human future, not just as post-deconstructivist theory, but as fact. Our agenda must therefore be to stop the waste of natural resources we cannot renew, stop the pollution, and reuse, rethink, reimagine, and relive our present.
Even if architects still want to make stand-alone buildings, preferably as large and as "different" or "creative" as possible, they will have fewe...