I went through a phase as an avid armchair architect, as someone who really appreciates and enjoys the built environment. But discussion of style, like this pos

I went through a phase as an avid armchair architect, as someone who really appreciates and enjoys the built environment. But discussion of style, like this post, misses what I think is the most important thing: that a building serves well the needs of the people who inhabit it. Because this can only really be discussed in reference to specific buildings and the experiences of the specific people who use them, it isn't easy to write about on a blog. This becomes a question of power. Who is paying for the buildings, and for what purpose? What incentives do the payers have, and are they aligned with the users? And these questions, again, are best asked of specific places, projects and jurisdictions. And then you go beyond and think about town planning, read Jane Jacobs, and then Christopher Alexander convinces you that good architecture is only possible in an anarchist utopia.