Ole Bouman: Bicycles, buildings and an ethic of care.

Architecture and the Status Quo

0:00Hello. Architecture's conscience, as building, buildings, materials, and practices, is, if one believes what is getting built in the helter-skelter rush to urbanize, a bolt-on at best, but more often a semantic, sophistic trick. Architecture as a profession talks ethically, but it's just a little difficult to see where this manifests in real life, beyond the very occasional one-off, often ludicrously expensive, private project. This is both an agency problem, starchitects gonna starchitect, but also a discipline problem. At a profession level, individualism resists collective action to solve

0:30broad social problems. At a policy level, any attempt by anybody to suggest architects have some social obligation that impinges on, quote-unquote, design, also gets shot to bits. In a May 2026 op-ed for the Journal of Architecture, entitled Architecture et Revolution, the engineered consent of a discipline, Ola Baumann, historian, writer, curator, publisher, and professor in the College of Architecture and Urbanism, Tongji University, Shanghai, makes a strong claim. Architecture is aligned with delivering the status quo.

1:00As Le Corbusier's famous axiom, architectural revolution, revolution can be avoided, invited it to be. But, after such modernist hubris, Bauman implies, our contemporary professional malaise grows out of too limited expectations. It's not that we now ask too much of architecture, but ask too little. For contemporary designers, however, Ola suggests that the poly-crisis upon us requires action at the collective level. To illustrate this, he uses the bicycle. No single bicycle fights climate change, but a culture of cycling can. No project changes anything, but the culture and knowledge of the discipline could.

1:35If you want and can, please support the A is for Architecture podcast via the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee links in the podcast description, where you will also find links to Ola and his work.

Introduction to Ola Bauman

1:47A is for Architecture, a podcast about architecture, buildings, urban culture, and space. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the A is for Architecture podcast. I'm delighted to be speaking today to Ola Bauman. Yes. Ola, thank you so much for joining me. As I said in my email to you yesterday, I was notified of your work because of a post on social media for a particular paper you had written in the Journal of Architecture. Architecture et Revolution, the engineered consent of a discipline, which is a short sort of non-academic article after a manner, but with some very significant points made in it.

2:25And I thought, well, it would be lovely to talk to you and to try and understand what you mean. But before we get to that paper and your other body of work, which is, I now discover, very, very extensive, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself? Yes. So my name is Ola. I work on a daily basis in Shanghai at the Tongji University as a professor of architecture.

2:47And somewhere halfway in my career, I shifted from working in my home country, the Netherlands, to work in China due to circumstances that maybe we can touch upon a little later. But quite critical for my personal quest to find work that is meaningful for me. So there is a there is a rupture in my career going from Holland to China.

3:19Before I was the director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, which is no longer in existence. It's now called the New Institute. It's in Rotterdam. It's still running the National Archive of Architecture, but it's no longer specifically dedicated to architecture as an architecture institute. It's only a new institute. Maybe we can talk about that later. And before that, I was the editor and founder of a magazine called Volume, which succeeded in a very old and respectable professional magazine in the Netherlands in the 20th century, which will soon celebrate its 100th anniversary.

4:09And this magazine was from the start in the late 1920s, a magazine trying to explore how architecture can be a medium of culture. So not just a piece of engineering, not just a piece of art, and not just a matter of technical discourse, but as a way human beings, cultures express themselves.

4:40And this magazine was always publishing articles from authors who felt architecture is more than only the output of individuals. It's actually a manifestation of civilization.

4:57So that was my first long-term job, to run this magazine and to transform it into a new title, which is still around, called Volume. And I came to that kind of work, like curator, director, editor, and things like that, and not a straightforward practicing architect.

From History to Architecture

5:20Because when I came in touch with architecture in my students, in my students' years, I began as a historian. And I found in architecture a discipline and a discourse that could help me to remain focused in my subject matter and very broad-minded in my perspectives. So architecture as a way to understand the world, allowing me to discuss and to explore a variety of cultural manifestations, from the alpha to the beta, from the engineering to philosophy.

6:09So I came to architecture as, and I was very fond of that, as something I called back then the last remaining generalism in a world constantly urged to become focused, to become specialized, to become specific, to become technical, to become analytical. And architecture as one of the few human endeavors that remain comprehensive, and syntactical, and synergetic.

6:45And that was very appealing to me. So I moved from history increasingly to work at the architecture school in Delft back then. And there I started to also to think about what it would take to be an architect myself. So rather than an historian using architecture as a source, to become a professional at producing architecture. And there I started to develop some doubts about, first of all, about whether I would have enough patience, patience as an individual to become a real architect.

7:33Because I saw many of my peers already during studies requiring an incredible amount of patience to translate a good idea into an actual proposal. And then after the proposal, after a piece of design, everything that comes after that to make it real, either to get a grade, or to diploma, or to be adopted by clients, or to be realized and executed.

8:08So I started to become aware about the incredible gap between a good idea that maybe could take just a few minutes, and possibly 10 years of work to realize it. And I found myself not the right person to lead that kind of life. So that's why I increasingly became involved in more discursive curatorial work, like magazine editor, or teacher, or a museum worker.

8:44And that's what has been my main occupation over the years.

The Mismatch in Practice

8:50So it started as a personal, like realizing my personal condition as not being apt, or not being the right person to do work like an architect. But by doing so, I also started to think, is it just me, not patient enough? Or is it actually the discipline itself, not smarter to do more with its resources, to do more with its intelligence?

9:22And I saw over the years, what I talked about was early 20s. When I was in my 30s, I saw many of my peers becoming professional architects, and increasingly becoming frustrated with the amount of fuzz and the amount of waste of their intelligence, their efforts, their patience, actually, also. And the gap between potential of architecture and what actually is happening in the architectural reality.

9:58So this awareness has marked my career ever since, to see what I can do, and to propose alternative avenues for architecture, to become more useful for culture, society, civilization, and to tap into the rich potential of a discipline that actually in potential offers great solutions

10:34to the major issues of our time, but not on the level as architecture is organized normally. So the mismatch, that became the mismatch between what architecture can do, and what architecture actually does, because of the atomization, the fragmentation of the discipline to the level of individuals, authors, styles, offices, and maybe most of all, projects.

11:04So that in the end, everybody always has to fall back to the level of a project. And in the beginning, you can be super excited about a wonderful project that you are doing. But after doing 20 different projects, maybe three are successful, 10 become mediocre, and seven or eight fail. You know, that's, of course, it's a kind of obvious question. Is this organization of the profession into the endless queuing of individual projects on a small scale?

11:43Is that really what it's all about? Especially in the light of the most urgent of urgencies that we are facing today. So if we think about, on this civilizational level, what kind of questions we are facing, and we start to realize what is the role of space, what is the role of the way we organize our spaces in producing these problems.

12:15And also, when we start to think about what can be the role of space and spatial organization in solving these problems, there is a wonderful prospect for architecture. But the structure of the profession doesn't allow to play that role. So, long story short, I wrote this article, it's more like a short statement, to do something about this mismatch. And if not, to focus on the urgencies and not on architecture.

12:50That's why I end this little article with the question, it's an inversion of a famous quote by Le Corbusier, when he ended his book towards a new architecture, saying, architecture or revolution? Revolution can be avoided. Me, in this year, at 2026, saying, revolution of architecture, or architecture. Architecture can be avoided.

13:22Because maybe revolution is more important than architecture. Change is more important than architecture. So, we rather start with the question, how can we achieve change? And then see what architecture can do, rather than, once again, try to find a position inside architecture, trying to defend architecture, trying to ask the question, okay, there are some urgencies. What is in it for architecture? What can architecture benefit from these urgencies, right? And immediately begin with the professional question,

13:56and not with the existential question.

14:02So, that's the arc, the intellectual arc. Since you asked me so explicitly, that I came to this article as a statement for a journal that, you know, I sympathize with, because it's asking these kind of questions. It's, I was invited to contribute to this anniversary issue. This journal exists 30 years.

14:32So, it's also a moment to stand still about the purpose of life, right? Like in any good anniversary, you ask, am I leading a good life? So, okay, is the magazine leading a good life? So, I made this observation.

14:48And, you know, it's, I mentioned Le Corbusier, because, of course, his position in architecture history is almost like a cornerstone of what architecture can do. So, referring to him and this famous, maybe the most important book by him, is also, let's say, referring to one of the key persons who at least had a great belief in the power of architecture.

15:22He is at least an architect who did not satisfy himself only by project after project. He tried to transcend this project level thinking to a disciplinary thinking and even societal thinking and trying to be a voice for social change. Ironically, in his case, you know, if you take seriously what he says in that last sentence,

15:53architecture or revolution, revolution can be avoided. What he's actually saying is, like, I, as an architect, can help to sustain the status quo. For him, revolution was a very bad thing.

16:11I don't think it's, at the moment, a bad thing at all to consider a kind of revolution, leaving aside for a moment what kind of revolution and what kind of revolutionary methodology would be appropriate. But we need some big change. And that's why I'm not against the word revolution like he was. Could you talk a little bit about the difference as you see it between

16:43this architectural knowledge and this disciplinary knowledge or perhaps professional knowledge and disciplinary knowledge?

Disciplinary versus Professional Knowledge

16:49How are you distinguishing those two things? What constitutes the knowledge of the discipline that is different from the knowledge of the project? I think that every single architect to a certain degree decides for him or herself in what sense the work should refer to a response to a client or a response to a program or as a statement

17:21to the cultural meaning of architecture. So is it only a practical approach or is there a philosophical dimension? And I think it's different for everyone.

17:39In China, I work in China and there it's interesting that the traditional word for architecture is tu mu. It means it's referred to two materials, root and earth. And only by mentioning root and earth, you're already talking about architecture. And only 100 years ago, they came with a new word for architecture, which is jenzu, which means construction. So to build.

18:10There is no word like the European words architecture in Chinese. I think the reason why there is a word like architecture is that over the centuries and even over the millennium,

18:29we have developed an awareness of what architecture can be beyond root and earth and beyond just construction and how it can be a medium of our culture. There is a whole debate. What is the real Greek meaning of architecture? So some people say architecture is it refers to the headmaster of a project. So the builder

19:00is referring by tectonic, the tecton, and then the architecton is the master of building. But there's also a way to interpret architecture as constructing value. Tecton, constructing, and archer as referring to value. So value making. And there we start wondering about what the meaning, the cultural meaning beyond sheer construction

19:31actually can be in architecture. And I think that's for me the beautiful thing of architecture that it can have this capacity to create and propose meaning for people.

19:46Which I think is on a very high level of culture. So yeah, that's my angle to take architecture very seriously but also to a reason why I'm so concerned about its current state where the art and the philosophy of architecture is reduced to a disciplinary discourse and a disciplinary

20:17discourse is even reduced to a professional discourse. So immediately there needs to be an element of professionalism of having a profession to run the business and I think that's unnecessarily reducing the potential of architecture. But is this disciplinary knowledge a real thing? It's an important question because compared with other professional knowledge bases architectural knowledge is very situated.

20:47Architecture has very fuzzy edges as a discipline. You know, you can have a tower block in New York City as architecture made by architects and you can have a tiny little one-bedroom earth dwelling as architecture made by architects. And so in the context of that you have a very indistinct knowledge base. On top of that and to go to your point around the environmental concern, there is this notion that Guy and Farmer talk about from a paper from theirs from a couple of decades ago, arguing that even within

21:18the sort of sustainable architecture, we have such a polyphony, such a plurality of sustainabilities that it's impossible in a way to point your finger at anything and say this is sustainable and this is not sustainable. And even the architects of those differing typologies might find themselves at odds. So I guess the question for me is when you talk of disciplinary knowledge, I guess it feels a little bit like something we would like

21:49to be true or for commercial reasons, as I put in my notes to you, we pretend it's true but isn't really true. I hope so. I hope it's true but it can become untrue by what's happening in reality. So the more people are sticking to the level of one project or the level of one book or the

22:19level of one performance on stage or the level of one exhibition and put all their effort in making these things good and not taking much care of the way this good quality is going to be translated or adopted by a larger context. I think the more that happens the more difficult it becomes to claim that

22:49architecture has a substructure or a critical mass that goes beyond the project. and I think we are currently facing a situation in architecture practice where most energy is put into at least make this project successful, at least make this career successful, at least make this a good book. So there is,

23:16and the traditional media to make it bigger than that are currently not very much emphasizing that part of the work. So also in architecture education, which of course is an obvious common ground where projects become ways of thinking, methodologies, discourse, etc. Many schools

23:47teach you to do projects well. They start with projects right away. the moment you enter school, you are not educated to think about architecture as a culture of medium. You are educated to deal with a small project and to cope with all the challenges of doing a small project. So you are conditioned to become a project architect.

24:15And I think it's not, you can imagine other ways to get initiated into the discourse. practice of architecture. The same for magazines. I have been running a magazine for many years and I know what my competitors were doing. And even in my own practice of the title archives and later volume, there was an inclination to fall back to the project level because

24:47it's so attractive. it's handleable, you can say, doable as an editor to make a magazine.

25:00Maybe you have 10 articles in a magazine. Every article is a standalone thing. And inside the articles, there is a topic that's a standalone thing. And the topic is written about by an author. and very often it's a monographical topic. So there is an architect being addressed. So this fragmentation to the small and common denominator is even

25:33very visible and present in the way that the media we have to reach a larger and more contextual level. So magazines, architecture media, publishers, schools,

25:53pianales,

25:56UIA conferences, and the like. So the media that we have at our disposal to actually do more than to transcend are not always doing that. and I think that is also a great loss and missed opportunity to position architecture and to give architecture the power that it deserves. When

26:27did this holy crisis of deferral in architecture come from? What's its starting point? Because you've mentioned Le Corbusier, of course, and his imagination permeates the whole post-war, mid-20th century, even into the late 20th century imagination, either directly in copying or in resistance to it. But what you seem to be describing to me seems to be something very distinct, something that's left Corbusier

Historical Roots of the Crisis

26:54behind. Where does it stem from? And I guess, so thinking more structurally or broadly, what do you think underpins the crisis within the discipline itself, such that it doesn't know how to act beyond the project? Yeah, I think it has very ancient beginnings, even back to the time that architecture was invented as

27:26something you can think about as a subject matter.

27:33But the very fact that architecture from thousands of years ago was organized as a matter of masters doing a building so the profession was organized in terms of good designers who ran a small office and maybe with a few

28:04apprentices and then delivered a building. So I think the output, the actual production of architecture has been fragmentary for a very long time. I also think that this is of course a very basic historical sketch, but what happened since modern times, especially since the Enlightenment and the

28:35diversion of architecture from engineering. So these two branches of building, one making sure it stands and the other making sure it looks okay. So these two mandates diverging, I think, also made the ones who were supposed to make it look okay were getting a kind of artistic self-image.

29:06So the engineers may not be known, but they had to follow certain rules of logic and certain rules of objectivity and certain rules of constructual integrity. So they had to abide general common denominators that they could not ignore, while the authors who were supposed to make it look okay, they could

29:37invent any way to make it look okay. So the artistic self-image is also, I think, a reason why this has grown into a predicament. It used to be very nice for those successful artistic designers, because they could make a wonderful career. But not for nothing, people like out of laws and also the Corbusier, there were people who tried to break through

30:07this role play and to become more relevant than only the single author and to say something about the condition of architecture or the predicament of architecture or the potential of architecture and to believe in something that is more than the sum of the parts. and today I think the logic of capital in architecture today makes it even harder to think

30:38about a common cause because you may not find any work.

30:46So your own professional survival depends very often on a certain signature, a certain authorship that you can become like a unique, bring as a unique selling point. So there are, and if we continue, there could be a few more conditions that have brought this as something that architecture is struggling with a lot, at least for people

31:17who expected more, more from it.

31:22That said, I also think, I'm not sure if you are interested, but I do think that despite all these long term trends to make architecture toothless or teethless as a social force, that it's amazing how much this discipline always reinvents itself and always brings back these kind of people

31:53like the ones I just mentioned and allowing a certain frustration and concern to remain paramount in the architectural global discourse. There's always coming back to is this really all there is? The way we do our work, the way we are dependent on the market, the way we are paying

32:23lip service to what clients want, et cetera. Is this all there is? There must be more for architecture. It's always coming back and I think it's a good question. Why is this coming back all the time? There must be a kind of magic that cannot perish apparently. And of course, another maybe much more obvious reason for hope is that the

32:56biggest urgencies that we are facing as society can also not do without architecture.

33:03So you mentioned sustainability question. So maybe there are many different sustainabilities. That's true. But it's clear that we need to do something to make our society more sustainable. And we cannot overlook the issue of shelter because we need shelter over 100 years. And to make our shelter more sustainable is a wonderful prospect for architecture.

33:34So there is, and it's not only sustainability. I think also, I personally believe that also the revolution of artificial intelligence and the fact that we are leaving more and more of our work to produce shelter to agents to agents that are non-human also raises the big question, and

34:05so how do we remain human? So what is the future of humanity? If we are allowing our brains to be taken over by AI, and if we allow our bronze to be taken over by robots, what remains of humanity? and then I think architecture has a, is an incredible resource to give people anchor how humanity reinvented itself

34:36many times before, also in times of challenges. So architecture as a corpus of knowledge, and architecture as a, as a philosophical inspiration, and architecture as an historical database, and it has an endless potential to, to bring back inspiration.

Autonomy and the Canon

35:00Doesn't that idea of, that you've just mentioned, this architecture as a database, or architectural database, that kind of come back to that notion that perhaps in one level rejecting, which is that within the discipline of architecture, it's hugely self-referential, the kind of, as I put in my notes, the Rossi-Eisenman connection, in which the role of architecture, successful architecture, is always to exist with reference to disciplinary expectations. And even in the case of

35:31more radical architects, Koop Himmelblau, Zaha, and so on and so forth, and architects from the global south, Aravina, Doshi, and so on and so forth, they are always measured in relation to their perception of the canon, or their reading in relation to the canon. So in a strange kind of way, and this is Rossi-Eisenman's point, that's necessary, otherwise the discipline doesn't exist at all. It's actually the sort of stylistic and spatial

36:01aspects, the material aspects of architecture, and it's referencing to itself that is the heart of the discipline, and not some kind of ethical framework. And if we go down the line of turning architecture into an instrument of ethics, we're not doing architecture anymore. Yeah, I think you're touching upon a core issue, first of all, because it is about the definition of what architecture is. So if you

36:34have a need to have a clear boundary of what is inside architecture and what is outside architecture, you may be more prone to believe in what you mentioned, the Rossi-Eisenman axis to defend architecture as its own, with its own integrity, with its own autonomy.

37:05If the definition of architecture is not your main concern, then you may be more relaxed about this boundary. I think the more you are insecure about your relevance, your mandate, your position in culture, the more you need these kind of boundaries.

37:34If you are completely into addressing those major issues that we discussed before, if that is the most important thing to do with your life, to make a contribution to society, whatever it takes and whatever definition is given to it, or whatever label is put on it, you would not be so stressed about what is inside and outside architecture.

38:06The people you mentioned, I have been around for long enough to even have done a few things with them, especially Peter Eisenman. I remember one conference many years ago, I participated a few times in any conferences in the late 90s, which was basically organized by him, by Peter Eisenman. And I will never forget a moment that

38:37this tension, the same question as you were asking, was coming from a student in Seoul, Korea. and she was asking the very famous architects on stage what everything they said about the mandate or the statute of architecture, what it has to do with her daily battles as to become a useful, relevant, inspired architect in

39:08Korea. And there Eisenman was very clear saying that he did not want to consider that as an architectural issue. So as a social issue, all fine, but as an architectural issue, that cannot be the question. And since this is an architectural conference, it cannot be the question. And then he referred, and I hope you allow me, he referred to an episode,

39:39I don't know if it's apocryphal or not, but it's extremely illustrative, because he mentioned his time as a soldier in the Korean War, where he was identified by a colonel as being an architect.

39:58And Peter Eisenman is an amazing, amazing speaker. So he brought this as something almost like a visceral question. So he was invited to come to the office of the colonel, and the colonel was asking him, so soldier Eisenman, I heard you are an architect, so I want you to build the barracks.

40:26and then he said it so clearly, so that's why I'm remembering so well, he said, colonel, just because I'm an architect, I won't build the barracks.

40:41So he played this out as something like this, he's like the heralding a certain freedom, an autonomy of architecture as something that you have to be very vigilant to defend it. And I like the way of thinking, it impressed me a lot, but it also inspired me a lot to think about what does this actually say about

41:12the role architecture can play. and the answer for me is very different from what he was saying. And I think architecture is strong enough and it has a legacy long enough to be an explorer and to crisscross society and see where architecture can be useful and can rescue in situations and can support people who are not

41:42primarily thinking about architecture.

41:46And that's something that I further developed later in a concept called unsolicited architecture. So you have the autonomous architecture of trying to be very clear about the boundaries. I also think you can have an autonomy that is about proposing roles of architecture where nobody expects it. So suppose there is no client.

42:17Can there be no architecture if there is no client? Why? Maybe we can propose things that architecture can do before we have a client. So where are the architectural projects as advocacies, as strong proposals to society and rally support for these kind of scenarios, architectural scenarios, that neoliberal economy

42:47doesn't have the clients for. So architecture as a beacon, architecture as a manifesto, architecture as a vocation, I think that is something that may return at some point. I hope so.

Architecture as a Caring Profession

43:03You propose an idea of architecture as a caring profession. I think this might be an elegant place to come to. You suggest a sort of Hippocratic oath for architecture. Do no harm, respect life above matter. I think this is a really good idea and it corresponds to something that I was looking at with a business partner of mine, this idea of an architectural health service. In Britain we have the National Health Service. Couldn't we have something similar for architecture where it was free at the point of demand for those who required it?

43:34So I like this idea of making a demand on architecture. Can you talk a little bit and in your article architecture revolution you have this dream sequence which kind of articulates I think some of those aspects and perhaps you can speak to that too but also how this touches down on the ground what this might look like in practice. Yeah. If the discipline determines its identity and holds a strong identity develops a strong identity one that

44:05is coherent and holds architectural projects in position what does that then reveal how is that then revealed in this architecture as a caring profession this idea of architecture as an ethics of care? Well I first of all I think this oath is of course symbolical and it's rhetorical and could take different forms but I

44:36think certainly a profession but also a way of life and a choice of how to be relevant in society can benefit from a symbolical moment to express yourself and to pledge something. I also think that a mature profession

45:06so I think in the sociology of professions it's interesting to see that the more professional a profession becomes the more it starts to rely on certain basic ethics and to be clear about the ethics. so I think architecture could be happy to become as professional as doctors for instance

45:36and I also think that given the role of architecture to organize our spaces and the problems our spatial organization at the moment is facing this oath in whatever form could be an important symbolical moment to enter your practical career as an architect but the underlying issue that you're mentioning the ethics

46:07of care I think that there is you can look at all kinds of examples how architects either young or older are taking that seriously I think some architects not many they are strong enough to speak truth to power they dare to choose a political stance that may cost them work but because of their ethics they still do it

46:37I also think there are architects not many but slightly more than the people who explicitly speak truth to power are the ones who embrace humanitarian work so they become architects of humanitarian projects I also know that the architects that besides their professional portfolio they are always keen to preserve a certain margin

47:07for free work or paper architecture or fantasy projects and this free work is not only free but it's also very powerful because it keeps them sane it keeps them fresh and vigilant as a maker and as a creative so that is and I think a fourth example of architects more and more are also

47:38joining community work so it's not only their output as one single office not even a collaboration between two or three offices in competitions which you see happening very often these days but joining certain communities and provide the architectural expertise they need to develop their communities I also think is a wonderful example of the ethics of care and maybe

48:09the most architectural in itself most architectural example of ethics of care is for instance the architects who not pledge the oath of you know do no harm but they may pledge the oath do not demolish it's it's in the same category I think so if if you have to if you have the courage as architects to say I just don't want to do projects that require

48:40demolishing previous projects I'm fine with adjusting adapting mitigating transforming forms of transition if that is my my craft if that is what I'm good at I become a sustainable and careful architect without falling back into the into the paradoxes of maybe being a

49:10great thinker but in the actual practice you have to abide the laws of the market or the laws of real estate so I I don't know how you how you I I know that in the discourse about this in UK is also quite strong and certainly in the Netherlands it's also growing and architects who just don't want to to think about tabula rasa anymore right there is no tabula rasa in the

49:41country I work in China there's a different issue because there the ethics of care is very much related to long-term public tasks so so there is a national agenda that have to do with transforming society to becoming more more ecological more more clean and more fair so so if there is a national

50:11agenda very much in contrast to what we know from our western democracies who are not very strong anymore they used to be but not so strong anymore in national programs to invest in infrastructure and in social programs there in China and there is a lot of architecture very often done by anonymous big offices not by single architecture niche niche office niche creative offices that deal

50:43with the bigger scale and the systemic change that is required if you can work for the next 20 30 years rather than just make it to winning the competition so the long term architecture for the long term is another way to focus your attention to an architecture for the common good rather than for individual success

51:13or the success of one single project

Cycling from Amsterdam to Shanghai

51:16there is a book coming out very soon in two months and that's about the bicycle journey I made from Amsterdam to Shanghai two years ago it has a lot to do with everything we talked about for example the practice of architects going to other countries especially to China for in the last 25 years and to fly over and then land into completely different context

51:47but only looking at the back of their seat in front of them on the plane and then suddenly they are in Shanghai I also lived like that for quite a few years and I increasingly believed that I was missing out on a lot of cultural intuition that I could gather much better by going to the east very slowly and experience the

52:18different shades of east which already begins when I was departing my hometown Amsterdam so going to the east that was also the title my journey to the east of this project brought me a lot of ideas about the Eurasian dialogue the Silk Road dialogue the tension between curiosity

52:49and contempt has always been curiosity has always also been the production of enemies and we are living in an age today that there is a lot of enemy production again and by going by on a bicycle it's not only slow enough to taste and to feel those different shades of east but also the vulnerability because you cannot do that

53:20on your own you have to rely on the local people all the time so on a bicycle is by definition an act of friendship and by doing so and by having this dialogue with people on all kinds of things I also organized a couple of lectures on the way so there was academic discourse but it was also daily discourse about

53:50bread and butter and by doing that every day boundaries are dissolving automatically and every country I came through I started with a boundary a border and I ended with one and in between so many people you know they show their commonality their humanity

54:21that these borders become almost like ridiculous constructs yeah the histories they commemorate it's one single topic that I mention in my book the monument the historical monuments almost without exception all dealing with wars from the past the more you transverse

54:51those places the more you see that those wars they commemorate something that most people were not part of so even wars are constructs but with lots of victims a lot of casualties of course and so on and so on so also on the level of architectural profession to see all the varieties in vernacular

55:23architectures see how people improvise yeah one like a taboo in architecture to improvise because you are supposed to apply a body of knowledge building but the ingenuity and creativity in improvisation is so impressive it's also dissolving the boundary of a discipline very much

Closing Thoughts and Reflections

55:48brilliant it's a great point to finish on right back to the beginning you very very much great to talk with you embers alas that the longest hill must end in a veil but still who climbs with toil whereso'er shall find wings waiting there such romantic nonsense from henry charles beachings going down a hill on a bicycle it's a metaphor duh see the podcast description for links to Ola at work on his website and to the essay that started it all there's also links to money means of keeping this show on the road and thanks

56:19for listening

56:23to