ABSTRACT
The role of the architect is "to serve greater social and humanitarian needs" and the new Pritzker Laureate is hailed for "tackling the global housing crisis" and for his concern for the underprivileged. Architecture loses its specific societal task and responsibility, architectural innovation is replaced by the demonstration of noble intentions and the discipline's criteria of success and excellence dissolve in the vague do-good-feel-good pursuit of "social justice". One of the "facts" of architecture is that in most industrialized societies, the practice of architecture is legally constrained to a licensed set of professionals, and thus burdened with the assumptions underlying the notion of professionalism. Professions in Anglo-American society are defined as the class of knowledge-based occupations requiring a period of specialized vocational training and experience, often requiring licensure as a mechanism of occupational control and market closure. Guarding the gate is a fundamental responsibility of the professional associations.
