Criticism

March 8, 2010 by Zahra

Recently, I've been revisiting a series of my favorite architecture books, trying to get an idea of what soundbytes from them I pulled then (when I was first garnering an interest in the subject) as opposed to what I pull now (today, fully immersed in the dialogue of it as a profession).  Of course the first port of call for myself is the long list of works by Witold Rybczynski, professor at McGill University, renowned architecture critic, and author of the books: Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture, Home, and City Life (to name a few).

This morning, as I revisited Rybczynski's evaluation on the value of architectural criticism (beyond just being the PR machine for architecture firms and architects) I found myself returning to the ideas the inspired me some years ago, when I was trying to evaluate it myself.

Some soundbytes for you to think about through your day today:

"The importance of buildings, it seemed to me, was not what they said about the vision of individual architects, but how they reflected the values of the society of which they were a part."

"I enjoy visiting building sites.  Unlike the ordered anonymity of office bureaucracy or the featureless regularity of a factory assembly line, a building site appears disorderly and chaotic.  In fact, there is organization, but it is a loose orchestration of many separate tradesmen, working side by side but not necessarily together."

"The idea that architecture consists of the building of art has produced a multitude of idiosyncratic and startingly original work; it has even made architecture glamorous.  But the lifting of traditional constraints has also resulted in an ephemeral freedom that has not produced better architects, better buildings, or better cities.  And we desperately need all three."

-Z.E.