Critic Curt Gambetta writes a fascinating piece about SANAA's Grace Farms in Connecticut. In the article, Gambetta interrogates the flow of corporate money over public projects and draws attention to their spatial boundaries-intrinsic ethos of corporations- even if they are used for 'public good' or announced as an 'architectural gift' which actually never exists.

The new Grace Farms cultural centre in Connecticut raises uncomfortable questions about the role of corporate money in public projects. 

Vouchers substitute for state and municipal obligations to housing. If schools, housing, roads and public spaces are only nominally public, what makes their architecture ‘public’?

Grace Farms is a bargain of a different order. In addition to amenities such as a basketball court, library, dining hall, café and auditorium, and its goal of providing shelter for individuals and non-profits to, as its website explains, “come together to collaborate for good”, the project is also a presumptive tax break for its donors. Are architectural gifts the new tax shelter?......Continue Reading

Top image: Grace Farms, the River building. Image © Dean Kaufman

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