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03/26/2003 Archived Entry: "Canadian Architects"

"AND ANY TIME YOU GOT AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN AND CANADIAN ARCHITECTS AGAINST YOU, YOUR TIME IS UP!:" Remarkably clueless antiwar letter (scroll down to "Architects Against War") from a "Joseph Baker, FRAIC, PPOAQ" (is that suppose to impress us?) of Montreal, which I happen to find in the pages of the March 2003 edition of Canadian Architect magazine. I believe Mr. Baker's letter speaks for itself:

Architects Against War.

Like many others, I have watched with increasing dread and helplessness the drive to war against Iraq and its people. The devastation and horrific loss of life predicted by the World Health Organization (WHO), Oxfam and other NGOs stand in stark contrast to the equanimity with which political leaders and our national media regard the preparations for military action.

Nightly we are regaled with images of colossal aircraft carriers, their payload of jets taking off and landing with precision, house to house battle rehearsals. These images will soon be replaced with those of shattered homes, broken bodies and terrified children. The WHO places the number of Iraqi civilians that would be wounded at 100,000 and a further 400,000 hit by disease after the bombing of water and sewage facilities and the disruption of food supplies. Fleeing the cities for the open countryside, 3.6 million will need emergency shelter. This is the true face of war, UN-approved or not.

Architects and educators in architecture cannot regard this picture with detachment. We adhere to a discipline dedicated to the creation of liveable cities, the building of friendly communities, of decent housing, of healthy and safe environments in which children may grow and learn. Many of us have no doubt written to our MPs, joined the March for Peace in our hometown, urged the adoption of anti-war resolutions on our city councils. Such a resolution passed by the City of Vancouver was drafted by Lawyers Against the War. Associations of physicians, of nurses, of writers--impelled by the principles of their calling--have made public their opposition to the U.S. and British administrations' drive to war. No less bound by the very nature of their creative role, Canadian architects, architectural faculty and students must find voice to express their own dissent with the terrible threat to Iraqi cities and their inhabitants. We have a national organization, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. It could be the platform from which the voice of Architects Against War is heard.

Joseph Baker, FRAIC, PPOAQ

Montreal

baviz@cam.org