Billion-pound projects are perverting architecture warns David Adjaye, who says architects should be champions for the cities they build projects in.
In a keynote speech at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam yesterday, Adjaye said that architecture should be the "arbiter of ideas", yet many of today's projects are driven by "elitism that is to do with hyper-commercial liberalism and who controls money".
"Money has totally corrupted the ability to make a meaningful form," the architect told the audience.
"It's all about money now. Architecture in the west is absurdly expensive – projects cost billions and it's crazy."
Architects have a responsibility to cities
Adjaye, who was knighted for his services to architecture in 2017, argued that architects have a responsibility to make sure their buildings give back to the people that use them, rather than simply fulfil a client's brief. "Architecture is able to become a form that is able to push a certain sort of justice into the equation," he said.
"I think that architects are responsible in the way that they work for a client, but they also work for a city, they're always indebted to making sure the city is giving the best back to its constituents."
Adjaye said his Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture gives back to the people that use itThe Adjaye Associates founder took the audience through a selection of his own...