It's desire not ethics that's missing from architecture, says Venice chief

It is not a lack of ethics that is missing from architecture – but a lack of desire, the president of the Venice Biennale has claimed.

Paolo Baratta said too many architects and developers are content to build merely because they have to. This attitude is having a damaging effect on quality, he argued.

Baratta was responding to a question at this week’s Venice Biennale press conference about whether architects have a moral responsibility to do good.

This year’s festival, directed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, aims to use the experience of dozens of architects to help solve some of the problems facing the world, from migration to crime.

Aravena’s view, reported in BD yesterday, was that architects should not be driven by any moral obligation, but by a desire to test their skills in challenging environments.

Later Baratta said: “The problem now is not ethics but the lack of desire – in architecture, art, politics.

“People eat because they have to eat, build because they have to build, buy works of art because they’re fashionable.

“Where’s the desire for a different quality of architecture and art? Conformism is the danger.”

He said his aim with the biennale was to inject that passion back into the profession, and he was confident that Aravena would achieve that this year.

“The biennale is a machine of desire,” he said.