The warning of some observers of the current state of architecture in the West is that, on the whole, architecture has descended to the base level of commerce and the marketplace. In Iran, architecture has fallen even further — from architectural design to mere construction and building. Where the course of architecture in Iran has arrived, and where it will go and flourish, is a separate discussion whose pulse lies in the hands of the people, the architects, and the officials. There were other commentators too, and by a hair's breadth from creative criticism, it was the topic of architectural circles and gatherings. Some have elevated the dignity of architecture to the level of social and political discourse and built ideals upon it — and all this has followed its natural course and will continue to do so.
Architecture, together with theoretical principles, elevates the civilizational level of architecture itself. The profession of architecture stands at a higher plane — one that, at a lower level and at philosophical junctures, does not allow art to intervene, and in that realm architecture is not art, just as in no climate does art grant entry to architecture.
The point worth noting is that a group within this very discourse of art and architecture have come to believe that based on certain theories, a particular architecture must find its blueprint, that architecture must be adequately created and that the architect's collaborative space must return.
This possibility raises the concern that every profession creates its own audience. From the breadth of this concern, Issue 17, published in Esfand and Farvardin, addressed architecture from its own critical perspective.
But in the broader discourse of architecture itself — the full range of technological issues and scenarios of geographical and political instability — to summarize their statements: the volatile construction market, recession, massive public and private development projects, the collapse of architectural economics, and the conditions prepared for collaborative and team-based work — fortunately, the discussion was not confined solely to structural loads and building forces.
This too accords with the collaborative and team-based work of an extraordinary nature; it was not enough that only the question of architecture was discussed.
Three Signs of the Decline of Professional Ethics
Following the collapse of Iran's architectural culture over the past several years, decisions and events contrary to convention have occurred — among them, in the realm of urban management and planning, massive bureaucratic institutions and organizations responsible for quality control have themselves been subject to certain factional alignments.
Creation — architecture is also awe, also genesis, also pain. We say this aloud: we must cast aside the rumors. Calamity in the marketplace causes irreparable harm in every profession, but the matter of buildings and their inhabitants is one where harm is intertwined with human lives. The master must stand tall and guard the sanctity of the academic position. Truth is the very essence of ethics.