Architecture and Economics

 
The relationship between building and economics is reflected both in the size and the amount of detailing that has gone into a building design. It is also reflected in its forms. The invention of the skyscraper was ingenious in this respect. It has the effect of multiplying the amount of usable space, therefore the property value. This is of course an evident fact but the negative effects of the impact made by its most exaggerated applications must be better understood.

The innate strength of the building materials to support the weight and the wind forces that affect such structure must be appreciated but it appears that with a bit of clever engineering, the height to which a building can reach seems almost limitless. This ambition seems to reflect something in the human spirit to always be the best and the biggest but is it sensible? Surely there is an optimum height of buildings beyond which their operation and maintenance becomes counter-productive but who would decide where this boundary of optimal utility lies?

The central issue remains political, therefore, in determining of the balance between regulation and exploitation. Throughout history, people have built more or less according to the needs of the times and the present is no different in this respect. So what is interesting to study is not just the superficial consequences of certain economic decisions but also the motivating factors behind them and how well the motives and the decisions are synthesised in the built product.

Given that there has to be the necessary element of the forecasting in any project planning, the chief architect’s key role becomes that of interpreting the design criterion into a formal, concrete reality, for better or for worse.

Rome, 14 10 2006