Citation

Picon A. J. Architect. Educ. 2008; 61(3): 6-12.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1531-314X.2007.00164.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

“We modern civilizations have learned to recognize that we are mortal like the others,” declared the French poet Paul Valéry shortly after the end of World War I in his essay La Crise de l’Esprit.1 In the aftermath of September 11, architecture and urban design have been struck by a similar realization of the frailty of what they had tried to achieve from the very beginning of modernity: an environment that would contribute to the political and social pacification of the planet. The attack against the World Trade Center meant that the twin towers were not interpreted as innocent symbols. Although initially they had been intended as a tribute to global prosperity, the terrorists targeted them as the embodiment of a worldwide system of economical and cultural oppression.2