Paul Finch's Letter from London The strength of face-to-face contact

摘要

Design, someone once remarked, is the tribute art pays to industry. This sprang to mind this week in Cannes, where the curious world of MIPIM once again provided a mixture of the original, the stimulating, the banal and the execrable. This event happens to be focused on real estate, but it finds other counterparts in gatherings attended by architects from around the world: the Milan Furniture Fair, the Venice Biennale and the World Architecture Festival are other examples. But MIPIM is different because it is aimed at developers, investors and occupiers, with professionals there as part of the retinue.