If You Fly to Close to the Sun

Arguably the false consciousness, which is reflected in much of architectural theory and praxis over the last two decades, was perhaps foretold in Raphael’s fresco The School of Athens. To situate The School of Athens, it is important to realize that architectural theory and praxis has been split between two extremes: mimeses and meaning, which in my view inherits from Pantheism and the Promethean myth. Postmodernism seeks to transcend these two extremes and the Kantian subject/object divisions; therefore, it is important to pin down the relationship between all three theoretical positions. As a way of summing up the debate I ask the question: Do architects have a god-complex? To summarize the expectations of this essay I will explain why I believe a god-complex to be true: first, an architect can claim sole ownership of an aesthetic idea or novelty; second, it is easy to assume that the idea may have transcendent meaning, based on some supreme purpose, or his/her ability to acquire earthly power or psychosocial insight. So just how ridiculous is the proposition that architects are like god(s)? Is the universally accepted God woefully inadequate? Is human creativity related to Divine creation? Or is this just another clash between Zeus, the corporate client and Prometheus the educated Architect? And finally, are we insensitive to God’s purpose or divine intervention?