Time for change

The marginalization of Europe is not just dictated by changes elsewhere, but is also fuelled by the erosion of the European project from within. A pan- and pro-European magazine like A10 is not immune to these changes.

Moreover, architecture in Europe has been hard hit by the recent financial and economic crises, and is also having to deal with the structural consequences of demographic changes of shrinking and ageing populations. On top of these, there are the various upheavals in the media landscape. Even greater than the impact of the shift from old to new media (and to some extent back again), is the shift in what is conveyed by the media as a whole. Quantity has increased more than quality, to put it mildly, given all the ephemeral information and interchangeable opinions with which we are all constantly confronted nowadays.

One of the points made by Kennedy is that one usually only notices big changes in retrospect and rarely when they are taking place. In order to comprehend the big changes, one needs to be able to see a connection between all the little changes, to have a framework in which to place all those little changes. For years it has seemed as if Europe after 1989 had entered a new, post-Cold War era, but with hindsight it may turn out to have been no more than an interim period between decades of political-ideological dichotomy and the Europe of tomorrow, which is now in the process of unfolding.

What is true of Europe as a whole, is also true of European architecture. In order to fathom the big changes, I would like to have greater manoeuvrability than the fixed rhythm of a bi-monthly magazine provides, and greater detachment from current events than the format of a website usually allows. Accordingly, in the coming months I will be moving to a new location: The Architecture Observer, a multiform tool for architecture criticism. And for me this means, at any rate, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.