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The bubble burst By Esther Zandberg It was a good year, 2008, for international architecture, maybe too good. Just like the mortgage and stock market businesses, in architecture it seemed anything was possible - just because anything was possible. The sky was no longer the limit. At any moment, another skyscraper, with an even more outlandish design, entered the competition to soar the highest at the whim of another uber-architect, as much as the latest computer software permitted. Just months ago, the year was looking like a peak year of a decade-long glamorous party. Professional journals and architecture columns were starting to pull out the superlatives to summarize the year. Then the financial crisis hit and scrambled the cards. The architecture bubble burst. In view of the fragments, who wants to choose some blob as building of the year? Architecture has its own sense of humor. Advertisement Much has been and will be said about the victims of the collapse and those responsible for it. Both sides include those who did not tire of applauding the bubble of showy architecture, as if they were a free-floating fan club. Just months after the Olympic Games in China, whose contribution to the architectural bubble was especially generous, it seems that many would be happy to rewrite history and erase some of the delirious praise lavished on the Olympic stadium in Beijing, with not an eyelid batted over the $423 million spent on it. That is not an endeavor that tops the list of contemporary humankind's most vital and urgent needs. The stadium, poetically referred to as "the Bird's Nest," as if it were made of twigs gathered in a field, is just an example. Every report on the artificial, palm-tree islands in Dubai, perhaps the most anti-ecological act in the world today; every cry of awe over one more deluxe residential tower in some international city, such as Tokyo or Tel Aviv; the thundering silence over the $450 million museum on Washington D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue, a museum of journalism actually, which opened last April; every bow to another delirious architectural blob bouncing around a computer screen, and looking for justification for its construction, added hot air to the bubble. Well-covered events such as the delusional exhibit "Performalism: Form and Performance in Digital Architecture" several months ago at the Tel Aviv Museum or the architecture biennale in Venice, celebrating wild ideas, extended the boundaries further and expanded the bubble with quasi-intellectual theses. The decade's architectural banquet started officially on October 19, 1997, the day the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, opened. It "is the most wonderful building in our time," declared Philip Johnson, then the guru of the architectural world. It is "the miracle of Bilbao," said the front page of The New York Times. And soon every city around the world, however remote and poor, from Denver to Cincinnati to Jerusalem, began to fantasize about its own Bilbao, as if imagining the god behind the machine. Bilbao gave architects a new status. Its architects became the new cultural heroes on high, who looked down on the world from the window of the plane on the way to another Bilbao. And as The New York Times architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote recently, "serious architecture was beginning to look like a service for the rich, like private jets and spa treatments." From the bubble of the Bilbao era it was possible to believe mistakenly that around the world only luxury residences, high-end boutiques and offices, state-of-the-art stadiums or impressive art museums were being built. Too little was reported on what was going in the poor neighborhoods and in conflict areas. The architectural world tightly maintains the disconnection between architecture and society and politics. "Social" ventures such as schools, hospitals or public housing, the symbol of modern architecture in its heyday, were not making headlines, and the Bilbao architects did not find time for them. Such ventures were not able to materialize, says Ouroussoff, in a semi-apologetic end-of-the-year article. The question of what interests lie behind this distorted world agenda did not become a top priority. The British critic Deyan Sudjic did stick a sharp pin in the bubble of flashy architecture in his book, "The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful - and Their Architects - Shape the World" in which he unhesitatingly pointed out the connection between architecture and tyranny, wealth and power. The financial crisis deflated most of what was left. But there is no rejoicing. Many in the industry were hurt and will be hurt by the sweeping collapse. Architecture firms that swelled during the heady days of euphoria in the global market are now downsizing, and doing so in Israel, too. Commercial projects are being postponed, and public ventures and cultural projects dependent on donations are being frozen. The first victims are the salaried workers, the weak link, who are joining the ranks of the unemployed. Architecture itself, in contrast, has a chance of coming out of this reinforced. After years in which the field acquired a fatty spare tire and excesses and space became frighteningly expensive, perhaps the field will finally revert to the right dimension and the right track, even if it is a default option. There's no dispute that 2008 was the year of green construction and sustainable architecture. This is a new and necessary track, as is social and political awareness. The construction industry plays a substantial role in the global ecological crisis, in high energy consumption and the pollution it generates. Now, in hard times, it is fitting for the industry's leaders, the Bilbao architects, to show the way. In so doing, they will atone for past sins. In Jerusalem a seminar organized by the Rothschild Foundation and chaired by architect Ken Young, a pioneer of international green architecture, will take place at the end of the month. It will be devoted to "green design: from theory to practice." Perhaps this will also be an opportunity for architecture in Israel to embark on a new path. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Fallen hero Relatives mourn Maj. Roey Rosner, 27, killed Wednesday by Gaza militants. On the northern front Hezbollah denies responsibility for two rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon.

Read & React Red Cross: Israel breaking int'l law, letting children starve in Gaza Responses: 99 Two Lebanon rockets hit North; Hezbollah denies involvment Responses: 66 Yossi Melman: Excellent intel on Gaza shows Israel learned from Lebanon errors Responses: 20 Yoav Stern: Rocket fire on North may be realization of Iran threat Responses: 24 Gideon Lichfield: So, why isn't Israel winning the PR war? Responses: 62 More Headlines 23:04 Third IDF soldier killed in Gaza over past 24 hours 22:37 Draft UN Security Council resolution doesn't call for immediate Gaza truce 22:05 IDF Chief of Staff Ashkenazi tours Gaza battlefields 22:35 Israel to present complaint to UN over Lebanon rocket fire 21:49 Iran bans volunteer suicide bombers from traveling to Israel 23:11 WATCH: Olmert spokesman says Israel never sought war in Gaza 22:10 'I pray that he will watch over us, he died a hero' 22:38 At least two Lebanon rockets hit north Israel; Hezbollah denies involvment 18:26 7 IDF troops hurt, one seriously, in mortar strike on Negev 18:20 Get up to the minute coverage of the warfare in Gaza directly to your email 18:12 ANALYSIS / Rocket fire on North may be realization of Iran threat 19:57 UN says halting aid to Gaza, citing danger to staff from IDF 15:01 ANALYSIS / Excellent intel on Gaza shows Israel learned from its errors in Lebanon 19:07 Palestinians: 35 found dead in rubble of Gaza battle zone 17:07 Olmert: IDF has not yet achieved all its goals in Gaza offensive 20:35 WATCH: U.S. Senate voices strong support for Israel's Gaza battle against Hamas 18:53 Sarkozy: Halt to arms smuggling is key to Gaza cease-fire 16:08 Red Cross: Israel breaking int'l law, letting children starve in Gaza 20:28 Hamas executes collaborators and restricts Fatah movement 17:18 Palestinian shot dead after trying to blow up settlement gas station Previous Editions Select Day 07 jan 06 jan 05 jan 04 jan 02 jan 01 jan 31 dec 30 dec 29 dec 28 dec 26 dec 25 dec

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