The design media is little more than a sycophantic, vapid and naval gazing extension of the PR industry. Our monographs, magazines and museums feed a cycle of shallow celebratory hysterics with little to no investigative or critical practice. Awards programmes lurch between jacking off the already engorged egos of starchitects or chasing the virginal myth of untainted emerging designers preying simultaneously on the young's insecurity and the old's fear of death in the name of profit for disconnected share holders. Cosy relationships between judges and judged, editors and edited amount to mild corruption - unsubscribe now.

The Debators

  • Oliver Wainwright is Architecture Critic at the Guardian and former Features Editor of Building Design Magazine.
  • Cath Slessor is Critic-at-Large of the Architecture Foundation and the former editor of the Architectural Review.

VS

  • Jack Self is co-founder of the new crowd-funded magazine, the Real Review and Contributing Editor for the Architectural Review.
  • Hana Loftus is Director of HAT Projects and writes for Building Design magazine, Architecture Today and Icon magazine.

Chair
Marcus Fairs is Editor-in-Chief of Dezeen and founder of ICON magazine.