We allow Junk.

Throughout architecture history there has been eras of thought and progression that follow one right after another. 1920s, Avant Garde followed by the Modern Movement of the 1940s-60s, then the era of Critical Architecture vs. Negotiable Architecture in the 1970s, which led us to Junkspace the era of now. Each era before Junkspace presents ideology and theory to the profession of architecture, provides a premise and purpose to architecture, yet Junkspace doesn't create any advancement to theory or the practice other than you guessed it, JUNK. So why? Why do we go from eras of architecture being analyzed and tweaked to be a better form of itself to an era of being the worst? 

Through the discussions of architecture being negotiable, Junkspace feels like an era that has given in to market. Architecture has lost connection with theory. It has become solely about the dollar. And I think that can reign true through the trajectory of European Academia and Architecture profession compared to that of the American Architecture progression. European architecture promotes competition through design, while American architecture surrenders to the capitalistic market and is competitive based on the lowest dollar not on design. And as a result, we are left with Junkspace. An evolution of architecture that promotes market based architecture and doesn't allow for adaptability or a response to societal change. 

So rather than trying to be agents of change, responsibly facilitating successful design to impact society or be apart of an evolving society, we are left with junk. Literal junk of buildings that don't offer anything anymore regardless of their original utopian intent of societal gathering and free market.

Please refer to one my favorite examples of junk. A mall that is 10 minutes from where I grew up. There was about a 2 year span of when I was a kid remembering it being opened. But for the last few years it has been a wasteland. No interaction. No positive impact, just a facilitator of a dying neighborhood.

https://cincinnatirefined.com/travel/mall-walking-forest-fair-village-cincinnati-mills