Slow Hard Look

It was author's first encounter with Adrian Forty when he realised the persistence of Adrian's slow hard look that is, for him, the most remarkable quality of his work, and marks him out from so many contemporary traits. There is much debate about how the financial strictures of higher education are determining a new intellectual landscape. Flying in the face of this contemporary urge to speed, Adrian is a procrastinator. Now, that might appear very rude statement, but only if one follows the received usage and implications of the term. However, the author takes the lead in seeing procrastination in a much more positive light (similar to his intellectual mentor, Zygmunt Bauman). Such procrastination does not come easily; it is the result of the slow hard look. Again, suggesting someone is slow might appear derogatory given the espousal of acceleration in contemporary life. However, generally things that are produced and consumed quickly also pass quickly. In Adrian's case the obverse is true: those books produced once every ten or so years have an incredible resilience that transcends fleeting trends. Adrian's slow hard look is much more than a formally or aesthetically determined act (which is where some architects concentrate, and then leave, their looking). It places the material of architecture within the complex of human and non-human networks, and with it brings the inert to social life.