OBJECTIVISM AND PROGRESS

Atlas. Lee Lawri, 1937.

The past week the book and movie "The Fountainhead" were brought to discussion, which made me want to go a little further in other aspects that specially the book stands for, since most of them deal directly with the architect's profession and the city.

Ayn Rand, the author, was the founder of the philosophical system called Objectivism, and both of their most famous novels, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged", are considered the beginning of it. The main concerns of Objectivism deal with the role of the mind and consciousness in men's existence, culminating to the moral of the rational self - an interest, that one's life goals are achieved by pursuing his/her own happiness. But the aspect that interests me the most is the individuality against collectivism. In opposition to the last, the former praises the existence of strong and individual characters, almost heroes, that with the exceptionality of their ideas and acts are the responsible ones to move the humankind forward. In other words: progress as a result of punctual efforts, not the mobilization of the masses.     

Tracing a parallel with architectural practice, there have been attempts to question the authorship of projects. Eisenman approached it by creating a system in which the process takes over the architectural object, and many contemporary approaches to architecture as research claim that the multidisciplinary team developed the entire design together.

As much as I personally would really like to believe in the collective authorship and achievements of these projects, every time I analyze the process in which these pieces have been through, I aways still identify at least one spark, one moment where one subject took over and made an important design decision to the project. Maybe this spark is necessary, it just does not diminish the importance of the collective to bring progress to reality.