46 Travel
Travel in all its forms.
on site review 46: architecture and travel
Francis Towne, Castel Madama, above the River Aniene, near Tivoli, 1781. Pen and grey ink and watercolour, on laid paper with a fragmentary watermark; signed, dated and inscribed verso: Castello Madamo / No. 2. / April 22. 1781 / Light coming in from the right hand. / Francis Towne. At auction at Sotheby’s 2021
Travel
Why do we travel? Is it to see new things? to rack up a gazillion photographs? to touch something elemental about unfamiliarity? to leave the quotidian behind for a while?
What, historically, did travel bring to architecture?
What do studios abroad, obligatory offerings for any self-respecting architecture school, bring to the study of architecture?
Does travel always imply distance?
Is travel a challenge or a pleasure? Is a challenge a pleasure? Is pleasure a challenge?
Is there anything essentially imperialistic about travel?
Is emigration travel or displacement? What does travel displace?
Peter Cook once titled a lecture: ‘I travel to find what I already know’. Is this the promise, or the danger, of travel?