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The “theory” that Michael Speaks addresses is not theory, but a recent bias of ideology: neo-Marxist criticism.

I enjoyed reading Michael Speaks essay “After Theory” in June’s issue.

I agree with Michael Speaks that design theory is finally and fortunately shedding the negativism and nihilism of Deconstruction and Marxism.

“Pleased”, barely describes my reaction to Michael Speaks article “After Theory” in the June Record.

Architecture has long been considered an art and a science, although architects – in effort to raise design’s respectability higher than that of the “cappuccino crowd” – relentlessly try to clear the blurred lines between them.

I read the article on page 73 of the July Record. As you know, it's an argument between academics, which, the headline would suggest is about the end of theory.

Our June feature “After Theory” by Michael Speaks has raised a lot of eyebrows and has garnered many responses.

For more than three years they have come. Day by day, the faithful gather at the wall, drawn to the place where the unthinkable happened.

It erupted as a primal scream from a frazzled-looking conventioneer leaning against a wall, hair askew, punctuated by a complaint repeated by others in corridors and grand spaces: “Get me out of here!” Not everyone felt it; many, if not most, reveled in the mix.

Something’s in the air. Call it community-based design. Call it architecture for people. In any understanding, socially conscious architecture seems to be blossoming again.