The following unedited commentary by Alison Brooks formed the introduction to a lecture entitled This Is Not A Fake delivered for the Bartlett International Lecture Series on October 23.

I thought I should start by explaining what I mean by this lecture title. I’m sure everyone in this room is aware of the number of crises we’re facing as a society, and as human culture in general.

There is the climate crisis. We’ve finally realised that the artificial division between “human culture” and “nature” carried down through centuries of so-called “human progress” must be reversed. This a huge project that should bring together all of humanity, and in which architecture must play a very big part.

…