King's hosts TAG Debate
Last night (Thursday 20 October) King’s hosted a Traditional Architecture Group (TAG) Debate between noted British Philosophers Alain de Botton and Roger Scruton. The latest in the series of debates, in which traditionalist and Modernist architects and their supporters debated the future of architecture, saw De Botton advocating Modernism while Scruton defended traditionalism.
Roger Scruton identified the decline in taste in relation to classical principles of design and the use of vertical lines to define, and give content to, building form, as part of a modern tradition of architecture implicated in the diminution of the quality of the built environment. Alain de Botton suggested that not all modern building are bad and not all classical, traditional, buildings are good. What matters is the building's interrelationship with its geographic context, and it respecting, and speaking to, socio-cultural and historical traditions and relations. The debate, including observations from the audience, ranged widely, and discussed issues about authenticity, sincerity, the meaning of taste, and the crisis of architectural education.
The debate was arranged by architectural firm Stanhope Gate and the Cities Group (Department of Geography, School of Social Science & Public Policy) with the collaboration of INTBAU UK and ICAA New York, USA.
The School of Social Science & Public Policy is at the forefront of urban research, not only in terms of architectural form, performance and design through the Cities Group, but also through the School’s wider exploration of health and well being, educational and housing inequalities, poverty, and demographic change.
Professor Rob Imrie said: "The significance of architecture and aesthetics, in influencing the forms, rhythms and sensuous experiences of cities, was highlighted in the debate, with the speakers helpfully highlighting the importance of developing a research agenda which takes more seriously the social and political production of the built environment".