Architecture is…

Thursday thing…

“…the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.”
Le Corbusier

“…waste in transit.”
Peter Guthrie

“…the art of how to waste space. “
Philip Johnson

“…frozen music.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“…a social act and the material theater of human activity.”
Spiro Kostof

“…the reaching out for truth.”
Louis Kahn

“…the will of an epoch translated into space.”
Mies van der Rohe

“…the triumph of human imagination over materials.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

“…inhabited sculpture.”
Constantin Brancusi

“…generated by the material and spiritual needs of people.”
Norman Foster

“…the process of embodying beauty and function in the built environment.”
Richard Rogers

“…whatever architects say it is.”
Norman Blogster

Posted on 19.01.06 by Norman Blogster

3 Responses to “Architecture is…”

  1. “…most noble of all the arts…and its greatest manifestation is the art of the pastry chef.”
    Antonin Carême

    Nell-Lu said this on January 18th, 2006 at 17:08

  2. “… always on the boards.”
    Peter Eisenman

    Nice post. There’s probably a post for each quote; wouldn’t it be great to hear the context for all these? I love it when lecture-circut architects go out on a limb and make these statements, and it makes it all the richer to hear them spend an hour defending such bold moves.

    J said this on January 25th, 2006 at 18:42

  3. “Architecture doesn’t really matter, of course. I mean, not in the way that life and death, NHS waiting lists, global warming and Middle East politics matter. It won’t kill you, feed you, make the 8.23 from Sutton Coldfield run on time. Mind you neither will Mozart, reading a book or shaking your thang to Britney Spears on Top of the Pops. That’s not the point. It’s not here to pay bills, solve world peace and make your life more efficient. It’s here to give your life oomph. That’s what architecture should do, whether its Tate Modern or the shed in your back garden. It should make you swoon, gasp, double take, go cor, bloody hell. If it doesn’t, life just becomes that little bit more dreary.”
    Tom Dyckhoff

    Secret Agent Man said this on January 31st, 2006 at 16:34

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