At 6:50 PM 4/30/96, Scott Gladstone Paterson wrote:
>But what we really need to do is to move this into architecture, for
>those of us who are architects and not remain forever in ideas.
>
>I am in the middle of writing up a presentation I gave on Daniel
>Libeskind's Alexanderplatz proposal. His work is informed by this idea of
>alternate histories and events becoming manifest and engaging in the
>present to rewrite the present as a multiple existence of presents. This
>of course is my interpretation and open to criticism. :)
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">His work is informed by this idea of
>alternate histories and events becoming manifest and engaging in the
>present to rewrite the present as a multiple existence of presents."
Is this statement about a building? Or even a plan for a series of buildings?
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Is it any wonder that with architects thinking so abstractly (as Daniel
Libeskind is supposed to, above) that the built environment looks and feels
as it does? Is this stuff truly how students in architecture school are
taught to speak about buildings? It seems to me to show a tremendous
dis-connect (and to reinforce such dis-connect) between mind & body. Such
an 'intellectual' approach to architecture places great emphasis on
'getting' an intellectual concept supposedly built-into the design. Iit
seems to ignore the visceral feelings created by the built environment,
visceral feelings quite accesible to even lay-people.
I'm sure that Daniel Libeskind is a very nice fellow and he means well but
if his work can foster criticism that is so lacking in meaning to the lay
person (who will, after all, be the one who experience his work) then
perhaps it is a sign of the work's own dryness.
No criticism of the writer, of course. The rhetoric I hear is probably a
reflection of the world of architecture school professors to appear as
"intellectuals" with "serious" things to say and it is not surprising that
students would get drawn into it.
Dave Sucher
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David Sucher
CITY COMFORTS: How to Build an Urban Village
http://www.citycomforts.com/
New Urbanism begins with the location of the parking lot.
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