The Freedom of Aesthetics

Architecture begins when ‘building’ ends. This may make it sound like an unnecessary add‐on to construction, but – argues London‐based designer, educator and writer Adam Nathaniel Furman – the architect's function as a spatialiser of aesthetics and meaning is precisely what makes the profession crucially enriching to human existence. Observing how it is too often dominated by a consensus on style and approach that prevents it from embodying the full complexity of its time, he highlights brief past periods of greater aesthetic freedom, and invites today's architects to a similarly open attitude, to create works that are truly inspired – and inspiring.