What is architecture for, anyway? You might think there’s an obvious answer, but the answer you’ll get from most architects and designers is–to express their vision. To make a statement. To create a work of art, an object, a monument.

For example, New York Governor Pataki described the World Trade Center’s replacement this way:

“The Freedom Tower is going to be a symbol of our freedom and our independence.”

There’s always lip service to the environment, the site and human needs but–look at a city of any size and that premise–that a structure is somehow “sensitive” to its setting and serves human health–is absurd. Concrete and 100-story glass and steel towers are nothing more than multi-billion ton, ecology-destroying monuments to arrogance. A vomiting on the land so we can keep priming the “economy” or memorializing our vanity.

But, there are architects taking different paths. Take seven minutes and watch this video–it’s worth it.