Ruskins Relevance to Contemporary Architecture

Clearly then Ruskin spoke to the Victorian period, but the question inescapably arises, Can the aesthetie and moral philosophies of a Vietorian art and social critic be applicable to design and construction today Is Ruskin relevant to contemporary 

Since Ruskin s time, populations have grown and economic systems have expanded with once unimaginable speed. Construction in our time has to be fast. It must be efficient. It must avoid unnecessary expense. If Ruskin foresaw the further mechanization of physical labor, he was at least spared the sadness of seeing how far that mechanization 

The spirit of the new construction was profoundly Ruskinian it entrusted a sacred Gothic edifice to hands that would begin the project raw and untutored, in expectation that, as the structure grew and took shape, so, too, would the skills and souls of the workers. That the cathedral actually did become a literal synthesis of stonecutting and soul-making, an exemplar of Ruskin s demand that the work must affirm the passion of the worker, seems to be confirmed in the words of Simon Verity, one of the master carvers employed in the project To be a carver, you have to have a passion for it, to love it with all your heart. It s a desire to create order out of chaos, to seek harmonies. (Matteson, 2002, pp. 300-301) 

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