Critical Distances | Distances critiques

Recently, architecture seems to have undergone a deconsecration process, a kind of secularization. It is as if it has lost the ability to represent its institutional framework, or its sense of community; in short, architecture seems to have lost its role. And in such a context, the architecture critic’s view is becoming less and less prominent. It seems as though the heroic figure of the critic has been recycled into the more captivating profile of the exhibition curator, the event producer, the showman, the blogger. Has the role of the architecture critic disappeared for good, or has it adapted to the pressures, urgencies, and fashions of contemporary life, thus embodying all their contradictions? A pause to reflect appears to be in order.