on site review 25: identity

Identity is more than behaviour or personality: it is constructed, deliberately, and sits like a stick of rock at the centre of all we do, the decisions we make.

The first line of identity, whether as an architect, an artist, a building, a city or a nation should have some passing acquaintance with an authentic self simply to be understood. Here is where branding, celebrity and spin often falter.

from the introduction to this issue:

identity: the individual characteristics by which a thing or person is recognised or known; an individual’s comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity

Identity is more than behaviour or personality: it is constructed, deliberately, and sits like a stick of rock at the centre of all we do, the decisions we make.

The first line of identity, whether as an architect, an artist, a building, a city or a nation should have some passing acquaintance with an authentic self simply to be understood. Here is where branding, celebrity and spin often falter.

It is complex, identity; it shouldn’t be subjected to simplification or reduction.

We need deep description of who we are and how we work, where we live and how we fit.

Why look at identity, architecture and urbanism at this time?

This is our twenty-fifth issue of On Site, a project that started very humbly and has evolved over the past twelve years to its present form. At its core is On Site’s identity as a venue for new voices, ideas and wide interpretations of architecture and urbanism.

On Site describes the complexity of what we do.

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