Architectural Criticism and Cultural Journalism in the 1970s and Early 1980s. Britain and United States: Shared Territories and Languages

Abstract

Throughout the last century, no other period like the 1970s and the early 1980s seems to have marked a comparable contribution in raising the visibility of architecture as a matter of general concern: no longer confined to the realm of the profession, architecture began to be regularly featured in the general press. Not coincidentally, it was around those years that Modernism became the object of some of the most vigorous attacks launched by commentators situated well outside the professional circles. Tom Wolfe’s well-known pamphlet From Bauhaus to Our House or Prince Charles’ controversial architectural speeches, are telling episodes of a diffused perception of the distance separating the public of users and viewers of architecture from the oft-self-referential world of the profession.

The aim of this essay is to examine some significant and select examples of architectural criticism published during the mid-1970s and early 1980s in Britain and the United States. Particular attention is devoted to the modes of interaction and contamination of this type of criticism with the genre of cultural journalism.

The following issues are at stake: which rhetoric, patterns of interpretation, and schemes of narration does architectural criticism borrow from the realm of journalism? In which ways, and through which languages, are specific aspects of the buildings and/or the architectural profession addressed and criticized? What are the recurring targets of architectural criticism? What are its audiences?