Is Obsolescence inevitable? Out with the old, in with the new, ad infinitum? It feels like this is the way of the world. Progress depends on it.

During the COVID hiatus, we took some time off to ask ourselves: is The Right Angle Journal becoming obsolete? Would that be so terrible? After all, obsolescence has been the hallmark of so many architectural journals over the past century-and-a-half that our departure would be helping to perpetuate a noble tradition. In other words, we could help keep obsolescence from becoming obsolete. It seemed the least we could do.

But that led us to deeper questions. Was architecture itself becoming obsolete? By design (as in the planned obsolescence of buildings)? By neglect (e.g., the Ontario Science Centre)? By attrition (the profession itself)? If so, can this process be harnessed, halted or reversed?

We began to think that these questions were serious enough to merit serious discussion, which required that we pick up where we left off. Let’s call this Question No. 5.