Diana Agrest is a practicing architect, urban designer, and theorist known for her unique and pioneering approach. She has been teaching since 1972—at Cooper Union, where she currently is, since 1977—and has been profiled as one of 50 Great Teachers by NPR.
Read her answers to our Proust Questionnaire below to find out her favorite architect, both living and dead, her favorite type of project, her greatest indulgence and more!
Who is your favorite living architect?
The City.
Who is your favorite dead architect?
Piranesi.
What is the trait that you appreciate most in a building?
Maximum effect with minimum elements.
What is the trait that you deplore most in a building?
Too much stuff for no good reason.
What is the trait that you most appreciate in an architect?
To do work driven by critical questions.
What is the trait that you most deplore in an architect?
Indifference to architectural discourse and to beauty.
What is your favorite type of project?
Urban.
What does architectural happiness mean?
Loving a project I did and that it has had a small measure of social meaning.
What does architectural misery mean?
Loosing a project I love and had hopes for getting actually realized.
What would be your dream project to work on?
The one I am working on now.
What is your greatest indulgence?
Always doing work I love whether designing, building, writing and/or teaching.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt
Film making, which I have recently actually taken a dive into.
What profession would you not like to do?
Medicine.
What is your favorite color?
Red.
What is your favorite flower?
Peony.
What is your favorite bird?
Doves, because I find their cooing magic, specially when everything is silent outdoors in a summer afternoon.
Who is your favorite poet?
Vladimir Mayakovsky and Federico Garcia Lorca (on a tie).
Who is your favorite artist?
Marcel Duchamp and Alfred Hitchcock.
When do you lie?
When I don't want to hurt someone's feelings.
What talent would you most like to have?
To sing well.
What architectural strategies do you most overuse?
Criticism.
How would you like to die?
Happy.
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