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A handful of us were just treated to a preview of Cameron Sinclair's talk at the Barbican debate Ethics in Architecture this evening. I took the opportunity to quiz him on design and self-reliance; and particularly on architecture as the final frontier for the notion that by giving people the insights and processes of design, you enable them to become more resourceful. In construction - as opposed to other areas of design and making - the threshold at which you bring in a professional seems to be pretty low. There's so much at stake - the cost, the physics, the longevity - that most people, sensibly, shrink from the idea that they could put a roof over their own head. Or so I explained it to myself. But among many fascinating facts, Sinclair told us that 98% of structures on the planet have not used the services of an architect in their construction.