But is it arrogance? Or just insecurity? Take architectural publishing.
Nobody reads architecture books, right? Normal people find them
impenetrable and architects read only pictures.
So most architecture books are the coffee table sort, where huge, empty
glass-eyed images, like big-eyed kittens on velvet, are held apart by
that pureed pig Latin they squeegee into the gaps. Architecture books
with people in them don't sell. That we know.
But something most people don't realise is that those glamorous
architecture tomes are mostly vanity press, paid for and even -
improbable as it may seem - written by their architect subjects. This is
a peculiar architectural phenomenon. You don't see historians making
films on themselves, or pop groups painting self-portraits. You don't
see Whiteley on Whiteley. Flannery on Flannery. Even Howard on Howard.
....
All very postmodern and pluralist and PC. But Nussbaum is dreaming if he
thinks democracy and design are seriously compatible. Truth is, they're
not even love muffins.
This is partly because specialism - as in honed, polished expertise - is
the core of what we call civilisation. Designing your own may bring
spiritual satisfaction, and homegrown design may be less ill-advised
than homegrown, say, brain surgery. But be it blog, bog or village, it
still has that unmistakable backyard look.
"Design democracy" is a feelgood idea, and that's about the only quality
it offers. As the Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy told last year's
Aspen Ideas Festival: "If I was competing with the US, I would love to
have the students … spending their time on this kind of crap. To be a
great designer is very hard. It's not about your friends [liking]
something you did."
It's hard because humans are hierarchical primates. Only the few can be
great at design or anything else. To be a great architect - a
Brunelleschi, say - may require a self-belief so vast as to be
limitless, but it also requires more than a Botoxed self-portrait as proof.
cont'd....
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/architects-are-egotists-by-their-own-design/2007/07/31/1185647900801.html