Infrastructure and the Future
introductory remarks george thrush 7
We at the School of Architecture see this conference as part of a much larger project—one that brings the creative and analytical skills of the architect to a wide range of real challenges facing our cities. Infrastructure is certainly one of those challenges. How do we correct for decades of neglected infrastructure maintenance, for example? This is certainly one question, but perhaps it is one more of policy than design. A more pressing question for architects is likely “what kind of infrastructure do we need to design for the future that will support our needs for transportation, communication, and the economy in a way that the infrastructure investments of the 1930s, such as rural electrification and municipal public works did for subsequent generations?” And importantly, what role do architects play in this discussion? This question of agency—who has the capacity, the authority, and the ability to act?—is one that permeates much of what we do here. Our mission of urban engagement here at Northeastern takes many forms, but they all touch on the question of agency, and efficacy. Some of our faculty are working on what one might call more traditional areas of research, such as more energy efficient and architecturally flexible building panels, and whole new approaches to heating and cooling buildings. There are others here that are working on things that are less typical for architecture schools to work on. One of them is a focus on the market-driven building types that actually shape the everyday character of our cities, and account for ninety-five percent of our built environment—urban housing, office buildings, parking structures, hotels, retail spaces, and the like. These are not peripheral elements of study at the school, but actually the focus of graduate education. Subsequent conferences are already underway to address subjects like housing delivery systems and a revisiting to the topic of building type, this time as both