Ricardo Scofidio, the architect and provocateur, takes our Proust Questionnaire and jokes about his terrible color sense.
Who is your favorite living architect?
Liz Diller, of course.
Who is your favorite dead architect?
Do architects die? They don't live on in their buildings? Oh, my.
How would you describe the personality of your practice?
Questioning. Messy. Demanding. Argumentative. Best ideas should win.
What is your practice's main weakness?
Not knowing when to stop.
What is the trait that you appreciate most in a building?
Silence.
What is the trait that you deplore most in a building?
I deplore Architecture that is so banal or excessively ugly that I visually shut down to my immediate surroundings.
What is the trait that you most appreciate in an architect?
Not always wearing the "architect's" hat.
What is the trait that you most deplore in an architect?
The inability to congratulate another architect on an excellent work.
What is your favorite type of project to work on?
Any project whose program is not a repeat of any previous work. "Firsts" always challenge you to avoid repetition.
What does architectural happiness mean?
Not having to work through the weekend.
What does architectural misery mean?
Punch lists.
Where would you most like to build (where you haven't already)?
Be careful what you wish for.
What is your favorite color?
I have no allegiance to a particular color and continually surprise myself with new hues that I like. Liz says I have a terrible color sense, so perhaps I'm just an undiscriminating colorist.
What is your favorite flower?
Flowers that I can inhale, that fill a darkened room with aroma or an outdoor space with fragrance.
What is your favorite bird?
I don't know what bird it was but I was in a taxi going up 12th Avenue and in the lane next to me, there was a small bird flying closely behind a car using the car's slipstream of air. The bird closely followed that car for 15 city blocks and was clearly flying for the joy of speed. We were traveling at 45 mph.
Who is your favorite poet?
W.B. Yeats.
Who is your favorite artist?
Marcel Duchamp.
When do you lie?
Only to myself.
What talent would you most like to have?
To be able to feel at ease when speaking in public events.
What architectural strategies do you most overuse?
I overuse the strategy of trying too hard to not overuse an architectural strategy. Also, I have an obsession with details.
How would you like to die?
Being alert enough to say something intelligent or poetic.
4 Comments
I like his answer for 'What is the trait that you most deplore in an architect?'
I just can't read this without considering how every single response relates to the Folk Art Museum. You deplore an inability to tell architects that their work is good? Not demolishing it would be a good start. Your practice's main weakness is not knowing when to stop? Try stopping before demolishing another architect's masterpiece. You most appreciate silence in buildings? I guess a good way to silence one is to demolish it.
I'll never get over this. Never.
When reading about his favourite dead architect and your angle on the Folk Art...he basically admitted to killing Todd Williams and Billie Tsien.
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