The second of four episodes in our series about Patrik Schumacher, Director of Zaha Hadid Architects. Tim and Joe review and critique the media responses to Patrik’s controversial presentation about housing at the World Architecture Festival in November 2016.

Two of these articles, by the Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright and architectural writer Phineas Harper, are presented for extended criticism.

We had a little too much fun with this one.

Topics include:

  • Responses from London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Zaha Hadid Architects, protestors, and supporters (sort of)
  • Extended critique of Oliver Wainwright’s article in The Guardian:
    • Did Zaha Hadid “dismiss” Patrik’s theoretical work in parametricism?
    • Gurgaon – a mostly private city in India
    • Are “thought experiments” valid and meaningful?
    • The housing crisis can be explained in three words: Great Crested Newts
    • Noam Chomsky on anarcho-capitalism
    • A new off-Broadway play, “Syndicalism in One Act”
  • Extended critique of Phineas Harper’s article in Dezeen:
    • What social justice warriors and the alt-right have in common
    • Government solutions are the simple solutions. Market solutions require more complex thinking.
    • Child labor
    • Poverty and welfare
    • Neoliberalism, Thatcherism, and Hayek-ianism
    • Adam Smith was NOT the godfather of the free market. More like the weird uncle.
    • The intern architect who predicted the 2008 financial crisis

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