Setting the scene for the future

Architectural Review, The, March, 2005 by Peter Davey

In addition to the continuing core tradition, I hope we have fostered inherited interests in developments of technology and in the other arts related to architecture--and in exploration of little-known places and people, in time as well as space. None of these has received as much coverage as it deserved because we have lacked resources. Similarly, I would have liked to have devoted more space and time to the disciplines of landscape and urban design, both of which have been developing remarkably in the last two decades.

Of course, I have made lots of mistakes of emphasis and omission, and am grateful to talented colleagues for preventing me from multiplying them. A magazine is a collaborative effort and in my earlier days, Jonathan Glancey, E. M. Farrelly and Frances Anderton enthusiastically explored new territories, while for many years, Peter Buchanan provided thoughtful analytical comment on the rapidly changing scene. Bill Slack enriched the mix with his special kind of graphic design. Penny McGuire brought an inimitable touch to coverage of interiors and product design. Dan Cruickshank reactivated the magazine's interest in history. The present editorial staff (almost all of whom have worked on the AR for years) have continually maintained and enriched the magazine's range and quality. I want to thank them all, and the contributors (7) who have added to the magazine's scope and mix.

The future

As to the future, a magazine must respond to what happens, rather than trying to set the pace. It can encourage, emphasize and support but not (as I once arrogantly believed) truly initiate. Naturally, I have strong hopes for the future of architecture and the environment which I trust are made clear in the rest of this issue, but I have no more idea of what will really happen than Jim Richards had when he retired.

I leave the AR in the hands of my successor Paul Finch and those of the existing staff, all of whom want to expand energetically and imaginatively into new worlds of ideas, media (8) and creativity. The magazine will clearly change. But I hope that the staff and those who come after them will never forget that the aim of architecture and its related disciplines is to serve and ennoble humanity. And that, sometimes paradoxically, architecture, alone among the arts, can move every aspect of our senses and being.

1 I have been editor since 1982, but was involved with the AR for four years before that under my predecessor Lance Wright. Previously, I worked for a dozen years on our weekly UK sibling. The AJ.

2 Richards, J. M., 'Retrospect', AR February 1971, p69

3 And it adds to the attraction of the publication to the retail trade by giving individual issues prolonged shelf-life. But the themed format has problems: it can be very rigid, and it can prevent rapid response to unexpected events, such as the unanticipated completion of a major building.

4 Open for completed work to all architects and designers, the awards are offered annually, and have regularly drawn hundreds of entries by (as yet) relatively little known people from all over the world.