The Economist building 1959-64 by Alison and Peter Smithson
If architecture is to make a genuine contribution to the modern city it must acknowledge, and work in conjuction with, the forces that contribute to its making.
If a route ran along a certain way, it was to give importance to that route by the position of buildings in realtionship to it. Similarly, if there was such an activity as going shopping or going to the market, the organisation of the buildings was such that it gave an importance to that activity which, without the building, it would not otherwise have had. That is, it gives a sort of value to an activity which would be otherwise banal or at the worst would, it it were not given value, mean the well-springs of your existence dried up, because there was no system of relationship, no reason for going on doing that thing.
"The Smithsons and the Economist Building Plaza" in Architecture is Not Made with the Brain: The labour of Alison and Peter Smithson, 2003, Architectural Association, AA Publications, London.
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