Two Loves

“The bike is not an ideology, it’s a mere tool,” said Kate Wagner at a lecture billed as being about architecture. Wagner, speaking to students at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, took the opportunity to draw together her two critical objects of choice—buildings and cycling. Like the bicycle, a building is a tool. As such, it should do what is required of it and not try to solve problems it cannot fix on its own, Wagner said. Rather than narrow design’s horizons, such an imperative opens up space for targeted inquiry and experimentation, whose effects could greatly benefit the built environment. Toward the end of her talk, Wagner elided the distinction between critic and journalist and asserted the idea of the critic as journalist, saying, “A good critic, like a good building, serves their subject.” The commitment to holding architecture accountable is made with love, just as the architect’s desire is to make buildings better.