Dwelling on the Future : architecture of the Seaside, Middle England and the Metropolis / Pierre d’Avoine,

Dwelling on the Future focuses on the design of dwellings and their varied environments, and questions how an architect responds to the challenge of providing humane places in which to live for a growing, multifarious population in an increasingly divided world. The issue is never just housing. People - individuals, groups and societies - can and do have different goals and aspirations. Is it possible to imagine and implement a world in which a level of comfort and stability is available for even the poorest members of societies?
Pierre d'Avoine covers a wide range of examples, including proposals for luxury housing and designs for low-cost dwellings, which all address the needs and desires of their potential inhabitants. He explores an inclusive approach to the design of settlements - and not just in cities - that recognises difference, an approach that demands a fresh political vision to resolve humanity's increasing inequality, for the benefit of all. D'Avoine asks if we can respond with optimism to the Kabakovs' mordantly titled installation 'Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future (2001)'. While this was perhaps a statement of fact in Russia and elsewhere in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, it is implicit, and ever more so, in the West today.

Arquitectura