observation-statement
Modern architecture has entered a new Baroque. Much decoration, these days, beyond need, applied in the Pure Language. Much construction, bent to fit.
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Red Hudson Valley brick is New York City adobe. Who will make Taos-on-the-Hudson with me?
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I studied physics. How can continuous economic growth, forever, be possible?
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I often think that the human species' unique evolutionary challenge is to self-restrain. Growing up I was told of populations of deer which exploded then crashed because their predators had been removed and they overwhelmed what their habitat could support. I wonder if we are different? We are self-aware enough to see it coming - can we overcome our base biology to self-limit and avert the crash?
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An old thought, from my school days: the usefulness of architectural theories is for the theorizer.
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Rem Koolhaas: the Bob Dylan of contemporary architecture.
Daniel Libeskind: Neil Young.
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Dennis Cicero: "The Is-ness of the Buisness"...
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I see no distinction between “man” and “nature”, I see only nature. And because man is inherently part of “nature”, by extension everything man-made is “natural”. The toxic waste right along with the organic compost. So I am not fighting for “nature”. I am fighting for the survival of the human species. The future of my son, the future of my grandchildren. Because I am confident that the living earth will go on, in some form, and the question is if humanity will as well.
A corollary:
In our contemporary lives we don’t live with nature, we live apart from it and go visit it. I believe what we need is a change in how we consider ourselves in relation to the natural environment. I am not arguing to set nature aside, to preserve it, to keep it pristine so that it is nice when we go to see it… I am arguing to inhabit it fully, to cut and extract as we need but in harmony, in balance, sustainably, considering ourselves and nature as one, which I believe we are.
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Why Paint? Because its understood as Art.
What is Art? Something.
(after Lou Kahn)
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I observe such a tremendous gap between what architectural style means to architects and what it means to Americans in general that it makes stylistic preoccupations within the profession seem irrelevant, if not laughable, to me. What do my friends and family see when they look at the buildings around them? Modern signifies “cool”, or perhaps culturally elite. A large glass box is an office building. Romanesque Neoclassical is still a government building, 234 years in. Generic gable-roofed “traditional” still means home, and despite what you will find in architectural publications, crown moldings and paneled doors are still the residential style of choice for Americans in the year 2010. No revelation here, I know, but instead of sulking, why not embrace it, and play with these associations?