Non-architects writing about architecture: it has been the norm since the 1970s. Have architects given up on writing about their own and others’ work? And if so, is that really a problem?

Architects, as Adolf Loos once said, are bricklayers who have learnt Latin. They do not merely build; they reflect on that building, they design, and they have a narrative about that design. Beatriz Colomina confirms this: according to her, Ariadne was the first architect, for she gave Theseus the ball of thread with which he could enter the labyrinth and – more importantly – find his way back out. She thus lay at the origin of deciphering and commenting on the built environment, and in doing so elevated simple building to architecture. If we are to believe Loos and Colomina, architects should, by definition, be writing architects: it is reasoning and writing that distinguish their craft from that of a builder.