CTBUH 2022 Post Commentary:

My honest opinion about CTBUH 2022 Conference that happened in Chicago

Every year I look forward to this progressive and very educational, highly professional conference since I discovered it way back in 2015, ever since if I do get a chance to attend this I go, simply because this event gives me an excuse to travel.  I like to travel not just because I can, but I like to optimize the reason why I travel, for meetings, work, and conferences, for education, always a sense of purpose and that it will help me improve as a person or as a professional.  This year was no different, I was even invited this time to be part of a jury panel that will deliberate the Asian Category for projects that are nominees for the Tall Excellence Award.  This was an honor and a prestige to be part of a professional group that will critique the projects closely discussing what makes one project better than the other one.

Clearly I provided the more architecturally oriented and urban planning views, while the other jurors delved into more structural, mechanical viewpoints, which I thought was so genius.  Whoever, brought us together in a panel did a good job.  We were discussing about the iconic appearances, we didn’t care for great and compelling forms just for the sake of a great massing, but we carefully took into account why it had to have that form and how the projects satisfy the principles of sustainability, that’s where all the basic design and development principles are then taken into the litmus test by actually dissecting if these were applied in the projects.  One major consideration was the urban context, when this mixed use building project considered the accessibility to the train station and considered principles of Transit Oriented Development into the project, the superstructure was parametrically designed to consider wind and had biomimicry attributes, we all agreed what project will be merited the award for its excellence.  That was such a wonderful experience when there is meeting of the minds, professionals with strong opinions and are free expressing and technically explaining in such an objective manner.  That was an inspiring and a refreshing activity.  As a professional who had been working in big corporations, this kind of freedom, expressing your thoughts in an objective way, is frowned upon, since there is always some political color that one has to be sensitive to, and also considering not to get fired by not saying the right thing. This is especially true if one works in corporate Asia.

As the conference went on, there was a recurring topic on how we will be preparing for the future, one of the speakers were already working with AI, and actually designing things that is so futuristic, that I kind of had an out of body experience, if you ask me if that’s a good thing, well, it’s not. This topic on the future pointed us to another direction, like why are we extracting resources in the moon? Were we just talking about Net Zero? Carbon Foot Print?  Sustainability?  A 14 year old genius who learned Grasshopper took to the stage and telling us about architecture and his Instagram account, although very entertaining and unexpected, it was also a bit desperate.  We were not here to be entertained, well I know I was not. I guess the conference kind of struggled a bit this year, because it’s the first in-person conference post pandemic.  Compared to other professional organizations that I belong to, I still hold the CTBUH with high regard.  I hope things improve more for the coming years.