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	title of this thread your message ...attempting to comment on dcwilson?s essay, I should admit that I know little about architecture. I know large parts of what is known about its history, both past and present but as an industrial designer I have a kind of Hegelian attitude toward that part of design that is called architecture. The more our societies evolve, often on the edge of popularism, toward democracy, the more architecture seems to grow as an anachronism. While even bastions like medicine are crumbling, architecture maintains it status of a discipline in which elitism is raising higher and higher barricades to defend it?s privileged position. The complexity of legislation, financial mechanisms and professional protectionism are the cornerstones of this barricade and it is unlikely that any of them will fall soon. So, architecture, for better or worse will continue to hold on to it?s position in which very few people hold on to the authority to decide over both the overall character and the particular qualities of the build environment in which we all have to live. That this authoritarian position is rarely challenged tells us more about the willingness of our society to grow toward true democracy than about the arrière-garde efforts of architects, but as someone who works in a design profession that consciously has made itself dependent on user preference, it is difficult to put myself in the shoes of an architect. This being said, I also want to admit that I am not a big McDonough fan. His ?Cradle to cradle? might be a contribution to spinning the environmental debate in an optimistic direction, it is so self promoting and superficial in it?s analysis that it barely qualifies as a step in the right direction. His architecture is formalistic and the ?green? features are the only elements that make it worth any attention. The formal language is part of a pool in which we have been dipping for the last thirty years. If aesthetics is not his concern what are these curved roofs and triangular support elements about in the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies? In my view, design, engineering, architecture are all part of our ?how to? knowledge. associated web images (optional) associated web link (optional) your email your password create a forums account \| you forgot your password?