(This Piece first appeared in The Herald on 25 July 2014 and is based on a talk I gave at the Athenaeum that week)
I have never visited Paris, but I have, just last night, visited a fantastic exhibition of excellent buildings and spaces at the grand old Athenaeum, in Central Port Elizabeth, entitled; “100% Paris”. You can still catch it. It runs until 25 July 2014. The exhibition is part of a collaborative between the Alliance Francaise, The ECIA, the NMMU School of Architecture and the MBDA. The ECIA’s Regional Awards programme is on Exhibition and so is some very interesting work by the MBDA and NMMU on the Baakens River Valley.
I have never visited Paris, but I have, just last night, visited a fantastic exhibition of excellent buildings and spaces at the grand old Athenaeum, in Central Port Elizabeth, entitled; “100% Paris”. You can still catch it. It runs until 25 July 2014. The exhibition is part of a collaborative between the Alliance Francaise, The ECIA, the NMMU School of Architecture and the MBDA. The ECIA’s Regional Awards programme is on Exhibition and so is some very interesting work by the MBDA and NMMU on the Baakens River Valley.
Visiting exhibitions and events of
this sort always gets me thinking and this time was no exception. I gave a
small talk on behalf of the ECIA and there was some very stimulating discussion that followed. The event got me thinking about “Excellence” and especially
excellence in the built environment. What is it? What is its purpose? Has its
time passed? Is excellence and means to an end? Or is excellence an end in
itself? It got me thinking about “The End of Excellence”.
Because, as I said at the talk
last night, I am quite sure, if you were to ask anyone who ever visited, Paris,
or London or any other beautiful city, to speak of what was most memorable of
their visit, they would speak of the built environment. They would speak of the
bridges, the steeples and the spires. They would speak of the parks, the
walkways and the avenues.
I am pretty confident, that after
having returned from London or Paris,
you would not speak of how neatly the accountants prepare their balance sheets,
or with what precision the doctors sew up their stitches after an
appendectomy. Yes, of course these
disciplines are indispensable to our civilisation, but we must confront the
truth that there is something very significant and lasting about the impression
that the built environment makes on us.
So, what about Port Elizabeth?
Yes, we have some beautiful places. We have the Donkin Memorial, City Hall and
Feather Market Centre. We have an extraordinary collection of buildings, parks
and spaces in Central. There are some parts of our city that are truly
excellent, but many of these are all
very old buildings and places. So, I
ask: are we still able to create excellent spaces? Or, have we moved into and
era beyond “ The End of Excellence”?
I ask this because, excellence is
under threat. Around the world it is being beaten up and kicked in the teeth.
Excellence is being bludgeoned simultaneously by a gang of three thugs. I am
not afraid to name them.
Thug number 1 – “Mediocrity”
“Mediocrity” is a politically
correct thug. “Mediocrity” says that perusing excellence is unfair because then
not everyone gets a chance. “Why should people that are un-talented,
unmotivated and generally useless not also get a chance?”
Thug Number 2 – “Competition”
“Competition” is dressed like a
respectable accountant, but still very much a thug. “Competition” says that “if
it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed”.
“What makes Central better than Charlo? What makes the North End Stadium
better than the Boet Erasmus? What makes Architect A, better than Architect B?
Show me the calculation! Is it longer? Is it heavier? Does it have more light
bulbs?”
Thug Number 3 – “Compliance”
“Compliance” is a mouse-like,
lawyer-like, thug? Compliance says “excellence” what is this? Where in the
rules does it say we have to create an excellent city? “Compliance” says, we
have made rules designed for stopping corruption and thievery, “What more do
you want?”.
The sad news is that these three
thugs have taken over public and private sector property developers. The people
that build our cities are now controlled by these thugs or have become their
agents. Where excellence still happens,
it happens because of the super human efforts of isolated individuals in the
public and private sectors, who, in spite of the odds being stacked against
them, see to the delivery of excellent buildings and spaces. Even today. Even
in our city.
The private sector routinely deliver s
mediocre buildings and spaces because it appeals only to the mediocre tastes and
expectations of you and I, the people who frequent their mindless malls, rent
spaces in their sterile office parks. The public sector routinely delivers a
mediocre built environment, for the same reason as the public sector, but they
but they are also absolutely determined to see the each and every individual
participant in the long sequence of events that leads up to anything getting
built, is equally as mediocre, “So that everyone can get a chance.”
The private sector explains that
it has no choice, it must remain competitive. It explains that the stock market
will punish it if it were to waste money on creating an excellent built
environment. “So as long as our competitors can get away with building poor
environments, then so will we.” The Public sector, explains that “We are
dealing with tax payer’s money here. There must be competition, to show that we
paid bottom dollar.”
The private sector says to the
public. “I have done everything you have asked of me. I have got the EIA, the
TIA and the HIA. I am exhausted. I have complied. Where does it say I have to
develop excellent buildings?” The public
sector says pretty much the same, but is even more exhausted by the complex
internal compliance procedures required to so much as move a pencil from one
desk to another. There really is no time and energy left to champion such
niceties as “excellence”.
Yes, it is sad. Yes, it is
demoralising. But it is the brutal truth. Excellence everywhere is under attack
and none so more as in the built environment. But, I ask: Is it the End of Excellence?
My attempt is to convince you that
it is not the end. Yes, we are under attack from these three mindless thugs.
Yes we are bleeding. But there are things we can do.
And while there are still things
that can be done, it cannot be the end.
