The architect does not build buildings. This is an illusion that has perpetuated over the ages, most emphatically in the last hundred years, with the Modernism romanticizing the primacy of the architect and architecture. The architect in effect, produces drawings and models – that is all the output which he or she has direct control. Beyond that, the work is subjected to just about every influence that might affect the work – economics, politics, relationships, fate, chance and just about any other spurious circumstance that will threaten the intent of the work. 

 

The architect’s realm in effect, is in the stim and dross of the process of work; it is the time when he or she still has the power to exert influence to the outcome, to instruct, direct, scrutinize and correct. However, we are redirected instead to the end product, the glossy images and magazine spreads that feature the carefully postured constructed image. 

 

The resultant image is a simulation of the architect’s dream, a freeze frame denying the delirious, the chaotic, the narrative, the real. We strive towards that image; for many architects, that image is cathartic and vindicates the entire process.

 

Temporary Works shows the other - the neglected and undesired territory that we choose to ignore because it’s messy, frenzied and problematic. Yet it remains the true terrain of the architect – these are the actual conditions of the work we spend most time negotiating. These spaces and configurations are charged but passive, they ossify in memory, but are meant to be forgotten and overtaken. They are meant to be powerless.