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Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n
The writer is a professor at MIT and Politecnico di Milano, and director of Venice\u2019s 2025 Biennale Architettura<\/p>\n
At this year\u2019s Biennale Architettura in Venice, we insisted: architecture must change! Yet the latest executive order from the White House \u2014 long rumoured and now dropped with the weight of a rock (or better yet, a Parthenon capital) \u2014 is not quite the change we had in mind. Trump\u2019s order mandates that federal buildings in Washington DC default not to modernism but to classical architecture. This comes as a shock. Yet, it also demands reflection.<\/p>\n
The previous principles for federal architecture, developed under the Kennedy administration by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, promoted no official style. Conversely, the new order declares that \u201cclassical and traditional architecture\u201d should be the preferred choice for federal buildings \u2014 and the default in Washington. Deviations are allowed only in \u201cexceptional\u201d cases. Even those must still project \u201cdignity, enterprise, vigor, [and] stability\u201d. The US General Services Administration is instructed to prioritise classical expertise, appoint a senior adviser for architectural design, and notify the president 30 days before approving any non-preferred design. Brutalism, among other styles, is explicitly discouraged (apologies, Adrien Brody!).<\/p>\n
We architects are indignant. The American Institute of Architects has said it is \u201cextremely concerned\u201d, warning that the order curtails design freedom and flattens regional expression. Federal buildings, it argues, should reflect America\u2019s cultural richness, geographic diversity and innovative spirit. Some have drawn comparisons to the UK debate about King Charles\u2019s fondness for vernacular forms \u2014 and, in a darker light, the state-imposed classicism of totalitarian regimes in 1930s Europe and Russia. While that parallel may be overdrawn, it is telling that, before the second world war, waves of migration from those regions helped make America a hub of architectural experimentation.<\/p>\n
It is precisely here \u2014 in the ability to imagine new futures \u2014 that the most concerning aspect lies. In the early days of the American nation, classicism was radical and avant-garde. The rediscoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum were transforming antiquity into a playground for innovation. George Washington may have admired the Parthenon, but he wasn\u2019t trying to replicate it \u2014 he was building something new that reflected the bold, forward-looking ethos of a young country. Today, by contrast, leaning on classical forms feels like an expression of nostalgia. A nation once defined by experimentation risks turning its architecture \u2014 and broader culture \u2014 into an echo of its past.<\/p>\n
More than ever, architecture needs experimentation. In the face of a burning planet, we must draw on all forms of intelligence \u2014 natural, artificial and collective \u2014 to confront the challenges ahead. We need to try new materials, experiment with different ways to harness energy and test morphologies that will better sustain what the ancient Romans called civitas: the community of citizens. We need to explore new methods, engaging in a feedback loop of trial and error that mirrors the adaptive logic of nature itself.<\/p>\n
It is the same spirit of experimentation that defined the original ethos of Silicon Valley, where everything can be tested until success or failure prevails. Out of that primordial soup came many of the most important inventions of the past 50 years. Some of them sit squarely at the intersection of design and imagination. Think of Apple. Or of the creative forces of the movie industry.<\/p>\n
This innovative DNA has long been a beacon of American creativity. And that beacon, in turn, has fuelled America\u2019s economic prosperity. Innovation was the engine of the nation\u2019s cultural and material power. Whether it remains so will depend on our willingness to embrace the future, not superficially mimic the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-4999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}