ABSTRACT
I want first to reflect upon where architecture stands and has stood in the past in the cultural territory of our society, dominated by accountability and cost and not imagination and value, particularly in relation to the public sector. Then I want to consider how that territory may be changing and how the polarity, which I define in my opening argument, may be being subverted by the way in which the UK’s culture and economy are developing, and where architecture fits into this changing situation. This is, of course, an area of concern with which CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) is deeply involved.
