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by Mitch McEwen

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    Write your manifesto in 60 - 80 words

    Mitch McEwen
    Feb 13, '13 5:03 PM EST

    A friend of mine, a colleague who also manages a practice in Brooklyn, asked me to contribute to his collection of manifestos and influences for a presentation.  Here are the instructions, followed by my own manifesto below.  What would yours be?

        (1) Write a theory that conceptually frames your ideas or a principle that drives your work.  We imagine it to be longer than a sentence but shorter than a paragraph: 60-80 words.


        (2) In partner with the preceding, provide one of your project images, from any time frame, that illustrates that principle.


        (3)  And lastly, we would love to hear what has influenced you.  It could be a book, project, film, magazine, etc.   If at all possible, this influence wants be something that students could look up.

    Result:

    There are too many problems in the world for architects to allocate our time and intelligence to making up new ones. To make a new architecture, make an architecture capable of participating in all of the values that society claims but doesn't realize. Make an architecture that reminds us of what civilization is capable of and also what it has not yet achieved.

    Lebbeus' Woods blog
    Das Kapital (Marx)
    The Order of Things (Foucault)
    early Diller + Scofidio
    Gordon Matta Clarke (exhibitions at SFMoMA and Whitney)
    Carpenter Center (Le Corbusier)
    Vers un Architecture (Le Corbusier)
    1978 New York
    1968 Paris
    2003 San Francisco



     
    • 4 Comments

    • tman

      The Manifesto is an outmoded way of thinking.

      Get away with what you can.

      References are he-said, she-said.

      Feb 14, 13 11:03 am  · 
       · 

      what was going on in 2003 San Francisco?

      Feb 25, 13 9:36 pm  · 
       · 

      Nam Henderson - just seeing your comment now.  I'm very late responding, but a lot of things were happening.  In addition to the burgeoning Google/ social media world there was this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_to_Stop_the_War  .  And really good wine. 

      Apr 5, 14 8:04 pm  · 
       · 

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