Year-End Issue: Policy vs Practicality, Practice vs Principles, Progress vs Planet

Dear FuturArc readers, “Words mean more than what is written on paper. They need the human voice to give them deeper meaning.” Maya Angelou This was what we attempted to do for this year-ender: to bring forth, through pictures and words, deep-seated (internal and external) relations between different players and variables: between architectural practice and architects’ personal principles; between projects and people; between policy and practicality; between progress and the planet. We hope this endeavour would find a voice beyond the pages, to bring the issues from meaningful discourse to meaningful action. Between practice and principles, do architects align their ethical and social obligations with the work that they do? Whether designing private homes or public projects, could architects translate their know-how and responsibility to ecology, nature and society into good-looking, sensible architecture that looks after not only the occupants, but also the wider community and environment? Between policy and practicality, Dr Ann Deslandes looked at Quezon City, the most populous city in the Philippines, and the practical concerns it faces when setting up a...