Training students to imagine a future encompassing all the key virtues required to redeem Western Civilization is a key component of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. Once a refuge for affirmative action admits with an artistic bent that didn’t have the chops to major in science or engineering but at least had enough self-respect not to wash out into the School of Humanities, Arts and Socialist Scientism, today’s architecture students stand at the cutting edge of building a better world.
“Addressing our collective challenges to address pressing problems like climate, inequality, energy, and which bathroom to pee in demands we inculcate a correct consciousness about design. For example, what is a chair? If we celebrate a building that looks like it is about to fall over that cost three times as much as a conventional structure, leaks like a sieve, sticks columns in the middle of offices, has stairs and hallways to nowhere, with windows and skylights that are impossible to clean, why can’t we make similar improvements to furniture?”
What matters most are the narratives we tell ourselves and others about our creative accomplishments, thereby developing sufficient self-esteem to overcome imposter syndrome.