ABSTRACT
There are two competing diagnoses of the recession of 2008 and its effects on architecture. The more optimistic view is set within the historically derived periodicities of what has been called Late Capitalism. Allowing for the after-shocks generated by unanticipated externalities, markets will regain stability and continue a general upward trend that has, since the mid-1940s, driven the U. S. and most other western economies. Thanks to a few disciplinary political adjustments, the status quo will gradually return in the forms of privatization and concentration of wealth, globalization of trade and labor, and increased disenfranchisement of marginal populations. Along with an unprecedented concentration of wealth held by the Already Very Rich (AVR), “the 1%,” new capital investments will be made in strategic locations. New versions of credit default swaps will allow ever riskier shifts of capital. Investment will focus on zones, such as the Maquiladoras of Mexico and cultural heritage districts capable of optimizing tourist revenue.
