WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Today I'm going to speak to you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about the last 30 years 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of architectural history. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's a lot to pack into 18 minutes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a complex topic, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so we're just going to dive right in at a complex place: New Jersey. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because 30 years ago, I'm from Jersey, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I was six, and I lived there in my parents house 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in a town called Livingston, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and this was my childhood bedroom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Around the corner from my bedroom 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was the bathroom that I used to share 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with my sister. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And in between my bedroom and the bathroom 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was a balcony that overlooked the family room. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that's where everyone would hang out and watch TV, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that every time I walked from my bedroom to the bathroom, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 everyone would see me, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and every time I took a shower and would come back in a towel, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 everyone would see me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I looked like this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was awkward, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 insecure, and I hated it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I hated that walk, I hated that balcony, I hated that room, and I hated that house. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that's architecture. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Done. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That feeling, those emotions that I felt, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's the power of architecture, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because architecture is not about math and it's not about zoning, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's about those visceral, emotional connections 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that we feel to the places that we occupy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And it's no surprise that we feel that way, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because according to the EPA, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's 90 percent of our time surrounded by architecture. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's huge. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That means that architecture is shaping us 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in ways that we didn't even realize. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That makes us a little bit gullible 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and very, very predictable. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It means that when I show you a building like this, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I know what you think: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you think power 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and stability and democracy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I know you think that because it's based on a building 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that was build 2,500 years ago by the Greeks. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a trick. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a trigger that architects use 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to get you to create an emotional connection 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the forms that we build our buildings out of. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a predictable emotional connection, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we've been using this trick for a long, long time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We used it 300 years ago to build banks. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We used it in the 19th century to build art museums. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And in the 20th century in America, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we used it to build houses, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and look at these solid, stable little soldiers 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 facing the ocean and keeping away the elements. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is really, really useful, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because building things is terrifying. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's expensive, it takes a long time, and it's very complicated, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the people that build things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 -- developers and governments -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they're naturally afraid of innovation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and they'd rather just use those forms that they know you'll respond to. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's how we end up with buildings like this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a nice building. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the Livingston Public Library 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that was completed in 2004 in my hometown, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and, you know, it's got a dome 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's got this round thing and columns, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 red brick, and you can kind of guess 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what Livingston's trying to say with this building: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 children, property values, and history. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But it doesn't have much to do with what a library actually does today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That same year, in 2004, on the other side of the country, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 another library was completed 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it looks like this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's in Seattle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This library is about how we consume media in a digital age. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's about a new kind of public amenity for the city, a place to gather 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and read and share. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So how is it possible 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that in the same year, in the same country, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 two buildings, both called libraries, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 look so completely different? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the answer is that architecture works 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the principle of a pendulum. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On the one side is innovation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and architects are constantly pushing, pushing for new technologies, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 new typologies, new solutions for the way that we live today, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we push and we push and we push 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 until we completely alienate all of you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We wear all black, we get very depressed, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you think we're adorable, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we're dead inside because we've got no choice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have to go to the other side and reengage those symbols 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that we know you love. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So we do that, and you're happy, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we feel like sellouts, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so we start experimenting again and we push the pendulum 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 back and back and forth and back and forth we've gone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for the last 300 years, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and certainly for the last 30 years. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Okay, 30 years ago 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we were coming out of the '70s. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Architects had been busy experimenting with something call "brutalism." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's about concrete. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You can guess this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Small windows, dehumanizing scale. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is really tough stuff. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So as we get closer to the '80s, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we start to reengage those symbols. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We push the pendulum back into the other direction. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We take these forms that we know you love 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we update them. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We add neon 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we add pastels 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we use new materials. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And you love it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And we can't give you enough of it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We take Chippendale armoires 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we turned those into skyscrapers, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and skyscrapers can be medieval castles made out of glass. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Forms got big, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 forms got bold and colorful. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Dwarves became columns. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Swans grew to the size of buildings. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was crazy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But it's the '80s, it's cool. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We're all hanging out in malls 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we're all moving to the suburbs, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and out there, out in the suburbs, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we can create our own architectural fantasies, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and those fantasies, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they can be Mediterranean 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or French 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or Italian. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Possibly with endless breadsticks. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the thing about postmodernism. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the thing about symbols. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They're easy, they're cheap, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because instead of making places, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we're making memories of places. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because I know, and all of you know 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this isn't Tuscany, this is Ohio. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So architects get frustrated, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we start pushing the pendulum back into the other direction. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the late '80s and early '90s, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we start experimenting with something called deconstructivism. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We throw out historical symbols, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we rely on new, computer-aided design techniques, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we come up with new compositions, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 forms crashing into forms. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is academic and heady stuff, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's super-unpopular, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we totally alienate you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Ordinarily, the pendulum would just swing back into the other direction, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then something amazing happened. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In 1997, this building opened. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the Guggenheim Bilbao, by Frank Gehry. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And this buildling 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fundamentally changes the world's relationship to architecture. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Paul Goldberger said Bilbao was one of those rare moments 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when critics, academics, and the general public 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 were completely united around a building. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The New York Times called this building a miracle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Tourism in Bilbao increased 2500 percent 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 after this building was completed. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So all of a sudden, everybody wants one of these buildings: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 L.A., 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Seattle, Chicago, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 New York, Cleveland, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Springfield. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Everybody wants one, and Gehry is everywhere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He is our very first starchitecct. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, how is it possible 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that these forms 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 -- they're wild and radical -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 how is it possible that they become so ubiquitous throughout the world? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And it happened because media 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so successfully galvanized around them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that they quickly taught us that these forms 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 mean culture and tourism. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We created an emotional reaction to these forms. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So did every mayor in the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So every mayor knew that if they had these forms, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they had culture and tourism. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This phenomenon at the turn of the new millennium 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 happened to a few other starchitects. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It happened to Zaha and it happened to Libeskind 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and what happened to these elite few architects 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at the turn of the new millennium 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 could actually start to happen to the entire field of architecture, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as digital media starts to increase the speed 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with which we consume information. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because think about how you consume architecture. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A thousand years ago, you would have had to have walked to the village next door 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to see a building. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Transportation speeds up: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can take a boat, you can take a plane, you can be a tourist. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Technology speeds up: you can see it in a newspaper, on TV, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 until finally, we are all architectural photographers, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the building has become disembodied from the site. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Architecture is everywhere now, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that means that the speed of communication 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 has finally caught up to the speed of architecture. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because architecture actually moves quite quickly. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It doesn't take long to think about a building, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It takes a long time to build a building 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 -- three or four years -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and in the interim, an architect will design two or eight 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or a hundred other buildings 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 before they know if that building that they designed four years ago 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was a success or not. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's because there's never been a good feedback loop in architecture. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's how we end up with buildings like this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Brutalism wasn't a two year movement, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it was a 20 year movement. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For 20 years, we were producing buildings like this 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because we had no idea how much you hated it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's never going to happen again, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because we are living on the verge of the greatest revolution in architecture 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 since the invention of concrete, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of steel, or of the elevator, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's a media revolution. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So my theory is that when you apply media to this pendulum, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it starts swinging faster and faster, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 until it's at both extremes nearly simultaneously, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that effectively blurs the distance between innovation and symbol, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 between us the architects and you the public. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now we can make nearly instantaneous, emotionally charged symbols 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 out of something that's brand new. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let me show you how this plays out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in a project that my firm recently completed. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We were hired to replace this building, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which burned down. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the center of a town called the Pines 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in Fire Island in New York State. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a vacation community. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We proposed a building that was audacious, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that was different than any of the forms that the community was used to, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we were scared and our client was scared 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the community was scared, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so we created a series of photorealistic renderings 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that we put onto Facebook 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we put onto Instagram, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we let people start to do what they do: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 share it, comment, like it, hate it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But that meant that two years before the building was complete, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it was already a part of the community, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that when the renderings looked exactly like the finished product, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there were no surprises. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This building was already a part of this community, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then that first summer, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when people started arriving and sharing the building on social media, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the building ceased to be just an edifice and it became media, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because these, these are not just pictures of a building, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they're your pictures of a building, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and as you use them to tell your story, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they become part of your personal narrative, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and what you're doing is you're short-circuiting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all of our collective memory, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you're making these charged symbols for us to understand. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That means we don't need the Greeks anymore 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to tell us what to think about architecture: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we can tell each other what we think about architecture, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because digital media hasn't just changed the relationship between all of us, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's change the relationship between us and buildings. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Think for a second about those librarians back in Livingston. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If that building was going to be built today, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the first thing they would do is go online 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and search "new libraries." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They would be bombarded by examples of experimentation, of innovation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of pushing at the envelope of what a library can be. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's ammunition. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's ammunition that they can take with them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the mayor of Livingston, to the people of Livingston, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and say there's no one answer to what a library is today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let's be a part of this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This abundance of experimentation 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gives them the freedom to run their own experiment. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Everything is different now. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Architects are no longer these mysterious creatures 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that use big words and complicated drawings, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you aren't the hapless public, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the consumer that won't accept anything that they haven't seen anymore. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Architects can hear you, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you're not intimidated by architecture. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That means that that pendulum swinging back and forth 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from style to style, from movement to movement, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is irrelevant. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We can actually move forward 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and find relevant solutions to the problems that our society faces. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the end of architectural history, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it means that the buildings of tomorrow 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are going to look a lot different than the buildings of today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It means that a public space 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the ancient city of Seville 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can be unique and tailored to the way that a modern city works. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It means that a stadium in Brooklyn can be a stadium in Brooklyn, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not some red brick historical pastiche 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of what we think a stadium ought to be. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It means that robots are going to build our buildings, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because we're finally ready for the forms that they're going to produce. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And it means that buildings will twist to the whims of nature 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 instead of the other way around. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It means that a parking garage in Miami Beach, Florida, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can also be a place for sports 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and for yoga 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you can even get married there late at night. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It means that three architects can dream about swimming 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the East River of New York, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then raise nearly half a million dollars 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from a community that gathered around their cause, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 no one client anymore. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It means that no building is too small for innovation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like this little reindeer pavilion 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's as muscly and sinewy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as the animals it's designed to observe. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And it means that a building doesn't have to be beautiful 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to be lovable, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like this ugly little building in Spain, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where the architects dug a hole, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 packed it with hay, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then poured concrete around it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and when the concrete dried, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they invited someone to come and clean that hay out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that all that's left when it's done 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is this hideous little room 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's filled with the imprints and scratches of how that place was made, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that becomes the most sublime place 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to watch a Spanish sunset. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because it doesn't matter if a cow builds our buildings 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or a robot builds our buildings. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It doesn't matter how we build, it matters what we build. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Architects already know how to make buildings that are greener 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and smarter and friendlier. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We've just been waiting for all of you to want that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And finally, we're not on opposite sides anymore. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Find an architect, hire an architect, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 work with us to design better buildings, better cities, and a better world, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because the stakes are high. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Buildings don't just reflect our society, they shape our society 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 down to the smallest spaces: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the local libraries, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the homes where we raise our children, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the walk that they take from the bedroom to the bathroom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause)