In an age that is particularly enamored with capturing ideas in 140 characters or less, it is tempting to take these remarks out of context. Yet many are part of a larger, nuanced conversation.
Stolen from ArchDaily.
There are at least as many definitions of architecture as there are architects or people who comment on the practice of it. While some embrace it as art, others defend architecture’s seminal social responsibility as its most definitive attribute. To begin a sentence with “Architecture is” is a bold step into treacherous territory. And yet, many of us have uttered — or at least thought— “Architecture is…” while we’ve toiled away on an important project, or reflected on why we’ve chosen this professional path.
Most days, architecture is a tough practice; on others, it is wonderfully satisfying. Perhaps, though, most importantly, architecture is accommodating and inherently open to possibility.
This collection of statements illustrates the changing breadth of architecture’s significance; we may define it differently when talking among peers, or adjust our statements for outsiders.
1. "Architecture is definitely a political act." - Peter Eisenman in Haaretz
2. "Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough." - Zaha Hadid in The Guardian
3. "Architecture is by definition a very collaborative process." - Joshua Prince-Ramus in Fast Company
4. "Architecture is a way of seeing, thinking and questioning our world and our place in it." - Thom Mayne in his Prtizker Prize Acceptance Speech
5. "Architecture is the art and science of making sure that our cities and buildings actually fit with the way we want to live our lives: the process of manifesting our society into our physical world. - Bjarke Ingels in AD Interviews
6. "Architecture is merciless: it is what it is, it works or doesn’t, and you can clearly see the difference." - Jacques Herzog in a lecture at Columbia University
7. “Architecture is always related to power and related to large interests, whether financial or political." - Bernard Tschumi in The New York Times
8. "Architecture is a good example of the complex dynamic of giving." - Jeffrey Inaba in World of Giving
9. "Architecture is too complex for just one person to do it, and I love collaboration." - Richard Rogersin The Guardian
10. "Architecture is the most powerful deed that a man can imagine." - Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos in Volume
11. "Architecture is an act of optimism." - Nicolai Ouroussoff in The LA Times
12. "Architecture is an artificial fact." - Mario Botta in Perspecta
13. "Architecture is full of romantics who think that even relatively small changes to the built environment create the aspiration for a better society." - Mark Wigley in Surface Magazine
14. "Architecture is for us, the public, and it is going to get scuffed." - Alexandra Lange in Design Observer
15. "Architecture is the work of nations..." John Ruskin in Stones of Venice
16. "Architecture is always dream and function, expression of a utopia and instrument of a convenience." - Roland Barthes in "Semiology and Urbanism"
17. "Architecture is an expression of values – the way we build is a reflection of the way we live." - Norman Foster in The European
18. "Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit." - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in "ID Merger Speech"
19. "Architecture is not a question of the purely theoretical if you're interested in building buildings. It's the art of what is possible." - Paul Rudolph in Chicago Architects Oral History Project
20. "Architecture is geometry." - Álvaro Siza in Imaginar a Evidência (Imagining Evidence)
21. "Architecture is about improving conditions: environmental, social and sometimes also political." - Arjen Oosterman in Volume
22. "Architecture is not just one thing. It is not just an art. … It has to deal with the real situation; it has to do something good for the society." - Xiaodu Liu in "What Can Architecture Do? An Interview with Xiaodu Liu" on ArchDaily
23. "Architecture is much more than the building of an object on a site: it is a reinvention of the site itself." - Sean Lally in The Air From Other Planets
24. "Architecture is a language: new designs should abide by grammatical rules to avoid dissonance with existing structures." - Prince Charles in The Architectural Review