Architects love to take on the easy problems—the ones already solved—and make them difficult. This way they can have it both ways: operating safely within the boundaries of the known and, at the same time, being daring innovators—but with a minimum of actual risk. ... architects are reluctant to take on the difficult problems—the ones not yet solved—such as the restoration of slums; the reconstruction of buildings and cities damaged by war; those devastated by earthquake, hurricane and other natural disasters; and especially, the invention of architecture that mitigates the tragic effects of such catastrophes by, in effect, anticipating them.

especially interesting given recent thoughts about Geoff's http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/nakatomi-space.html , Eyal Weizman's IDF essay, and the crisis in Haiti