So my first class in architecture school requires that i read The Fountainhead. I was wondering how much relevance this book has to architecture today.
atlas shrugged is so much better than fountainhead...but still, as whistler points out, its worth a read just to know about self-serving a-hole architects in the profession
If handled well in class, it could be a really informative book- a chance to talk about some of the financial and cultural aspects of the book that so many here complain about every day. Look at the period where Roark is starving under his own banner, and Keating is rising to the top, soulless. Yes it's an exaggeration, but it's also a great jumping off point for a discussion on those topics. Also, as probably the most widely read book in the world dealing with the profession of architecture, I feel that any architect who hasn't read it is missing the characature that the rest of the world sees the profession as.
i hate ayn rand and her philosophies. her self-centered/serving philosophical prioritization is short-sighted and are a rather dim view of human nature and society. it's like a hybrid libertarian/conservative bent.
as usual, rationalist is the only one above that is being rational... just don't get the impression that the book is a reflection the real world profession... it's worth a read, as a piece of literature...
however, i do find it strange that a "real" architecture class would utilize the fountainhead...
sure it's relevant. anything you read can be helpful in moving you a little farther along in figuring out what you believe. you might decide you agree with the fountainhead premise, but you'll probably move past that at some point. or you may not buy in at all but you'll realize years later that there were some interesting things there.
not true. being liberal doesn't mean you're all peace and love. i can be liberal and allowed to hate as much as anyone else and we're allowed to voice it. being liberal is just respecting the others' right to do the same.
for me reading fountainhead is more of ayn rand trying to exult the glory of the individual regardless of others moreover than any kind of relationship to architecture. it's no more about architecture than Lahiri's The Namesake.
i find it somewhat suspect that an architecture program is requiring students to read it. unless they're about to discuss epistimology. otherwise it seems like a sneaky way of alluding to certain political motivations.
i found The Fountainhead a moving and exciting story that also was the beginning of something like a 6 year extense reading of ALL her writings, (fiction and non-fiction).
it increased my motivation - and for that alone i think it is worth reading.
here's why i don't talk politics at work, once i was having a discussion with the bosses son who was not an architect but an accountant. he did the books filled out paperwork payroll etc...anyway he said something about liberals like "you liberals blah blah blah" and i said look Im not a liberal. Im a leftist and when the revolution comes I will take you out in the alley and put a bullet behind your ear." he never called me a liberal again.
we dint read fountainhead, i suspect for reasons similar to what acfa gives. we had smart profs. or at least smart enough to know what is fiction and what is the point of books.
we talked once about the teseract house by robert heinlein and i thought that was pretty cool. but we dint hae to read it.
I would stongly suggest you read something by Saul Bellows...."Henderson the Rain King"....It is far more entertaining, and filled with tons of things an architect should know about life.
Write a report on it and turn it in instood of something on Ann's Fountain Head.
If you have a problem wrapping your head around Saul Bellows, then I would say you should pick up any of the many books written by the
San Franscio writter, Richard Brautigan. Trout Fishing in America, Spring Hill Mine Disaster. They say he wrote a book everytime he had a falling out with a lady.
Ayn Rand's "Objectivism" is a slightly watered down social fascism as I see it. Her work is incredibly anti-humanist and it makes me very weary and frightened that The Fountainhead is being taught in architecture schools. Yikes yikes yikes!
With that said, I also count The Fountainhead as a big motivator in getting my arse of the couch when I was 19 and pursuing architecture as a career, so I am a little conflicted about the book. There is some really good stuff in there about creative integrity and sticking to one's guns, as it were, so perhaps it's not all evil....
Aug 25, 07 2:58 pm ·
·
[...and speaking of random tangents]
The four architects had decided to achieve an effect of harmony and therefore not to use any historical style in its pure form. Peter Keating designed the white marble semi-Doric portico that rose over the main entrance, and the Venetian balconies for which new doors were cut. John Erik Snyte designed the small semi-Gothic spite surmounted by a cross, and the bandcourses of stylized acanthus leaves which were cut into the limestone of the walls. Gordon L. Prescott designed the semi-renaissance cornice, and the glass-enclosed terrace projecting from the third floor. Gus Webb designed a cubistic ornament to frame the original windows, and the modern neon sign up on the roof, which read: “The Hopton Stoddard Home for Subnormal Children.”
“Comes the revolution,” said Gus Webb, looking at the completed structure, “and every kid in the country will have a home like that!”
The original shape of the building remained discernable. It was not like a corpse whose fragments had been mercifully scattered; it was like a corpse hacked to pieces and reassembled.
--Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943), pp. 385-6.
I think I went to a Subnormal School of Architecture, and thank God for that.
Well, as a libertarian architecture student, I loved The Fountain Head. I still think Atlas Shrugged was Rand's opus, though. Love it or hate it, I think it does a great job of identifying two kinds of assholes in this field. Good luck with it. It's a thick one.
As another semi-libertarian architecture student, I also loved it. Its quite inspiring and compelling, even when taken with a grain of salt in terms of the books motives.
i always thought the problem with Rand's "philosophy" was that it failed once you were "married;" either a spouse or partner or situation. the idea of no compromise fails as a concept once there is a counterpoint that you need to consider.
Thanks for your thoughtful response. My question was tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at those (not you) who cry "hate speech" any time someone voices disagreement.
Janosh, I think Rand wrote that whole book just to explain pages 900-1000. Give those a shot. Oh, and you can always drop "Who is John Galt?" and libertarians everywhere will know what the hell you're talking about.
I liked some of the comments here. I understand where some thoughts may be coming from, not others.
I would like to believe that Jae's School had multiple intentions behind the Fountainhead assignment. It's a school of architecture (I assume), and not popular literature. Then the school wanted the kids to write a paper. This calls for an act of thinking on and beyond what Rand scripted. An essentially 'critical' analysis. It would help the students learn to take a stand, whether for or against an idea, or merely identify where Ayn Rand excelled or flawed.
Is it not important to have an opinion? A thought that is your's? A way you see things? I don't think the school's idea was to make a statement about architect's choices of conduct...extremes such as being altruistic or egotist. These are only 2 ends of an otherwise "numeric" scale...like saying too much of darkness is the least of light. Or vice versa. The school probably wants the students to ask questions, relevant ones. Rand's appeal as a writer might interfere with some students' ability to criticize her constructively. This assignment, could help them do it with grace.
(OK, I have more to say, but gotta go for now! Sshh! I am a TA for this class, but the kids are busy with work and behaving like good lil children! Now time's up, I leave. Wud continue on this one.)
yeah we really need some ppl like libeskind, speaking of which, where are the starkitects on archinect??? i'd love to see a debate between per and thom mayne or someone like that.
anyway, i would support this reading assignment, i read the book a few years ago, the summer before college. perhaps it influenced my thinking too much the first year, but i think i have balanced the important points of the Fountainhead with everything that i've learned at school. Architecture is a combination of basically everything, and i never regret reading anything, because i think, inherently there are bits of intelligence in everything (for the most part).
Oct 16, 07 10:20 pm ·
·
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The Fountainhead: relevant?
So my first class in architecture school requires that i read The Fountainhead. I was wondering how much relevance this book has to architecture today.
Bio says Mississippi State.
no not bs...ts...its for arch. appreciation...we gotta write a paper on it later on in the semester.
I'm normally strongly opposed to the practice of book-burning, but I might be willing to make an exception for anything written by Ayn Rand.
Sure its relevent to be able to spot the dickheads you'll come across while in the profession.
atlas shrugged, now thats a book
atlas shrugged is so much better than fountainhead...but still, as whistler points out, its worth a read just to know about self-serving a-hole architects in the profession
If handled well in class, it could be a really informative book- a chance to talk about some of the financial and cultural aspects of the book that so many here complain about every day. Look at the period where Roark is starving under his own banner, and Keating is rising to the top, soulless. Yes it's an exaggeration, but it's also a great jumping off point for a discussion on those topics. Also, as probably the most widely read book in the world dealing with the profession of architecture, I feel that any architect who hasn't read it is missing the characature that the rest of the world sees the profession as.
Interestingly, the company responsible for the deaths of two FDNY firefighters and dozens of safety violations during the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank Building at Ground Zero is named after the protagonist in Atlas Shrugged.
my ivy league undergrad made us read the book and watch the movie.
i hate ayn rand and her philosophies. her self-centered/serving philosophical prioritization is short-sighted and are a rather dim view of human nature and society. it's like a hybrid libertarian/conservative bent.
*gets off soapbox*
ellsworth toohey is good for a laugh
as usual, rationalist is the only one above that is being rational... just don't get the impression that the book is a reflection the real world profession... it's worth a read, as a piece of literature...
however, i do find it strange that a "real" architecture class would utilize the fountainhead...
I thought we liberals weren't supposed to hate or use hate speech, ACFA...
sure it's relevant. anything you read can be helpful in moving you a little farther along in figuring out what you believe. you might decide you agree with the fountainhead premise, but you'll probably move past that at some point. or you may not buy in at all but you'll realize years later that there were some interesting things there.
read anything/everything.
If you read the Fountainhead, be sure to read the Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander next. This will keep you balanced.
Ego conquers all vs. absence of all ego.
The relevant lesson from the Fountainhead - if you run out of work as an architect - get construction jobs and learn something.....
books kill. didnt you ever read Howard's End?
foundtain head is full of shit. i do not see how u can survive in a construction site if ppl know u were an architect.
like wade william the prison guard in prison break who end up in prison and being everyone's bitch.
do they make a cliff notes for the fountainhead - now that would be worth reading
citizen -
not true. being liberal doesn't mean you're all peace and love. i can be liberal and allowed to hate as much as anyone else and we're allowed to voice it. being liberal is just respecting the others' right to do the same.
for me reading fountainhead is more of ayn rand trying to exult the glory of the individual regardless of others moreover than any kind of relationship to architecture. it's no more about architecture than Lahiri's The Namesake.
i find it somewhat suspect that an architecture program is requiring students to read it. unless they're about to discuss epistimology. otherwise it seems like a sneaky way of alluding to certain political motivations.
i found The Fountainhead a moving and exciting story that also was the beginning of something like a 6 year extense reading of ALL her writings, (fiction and non-fiction).
it increased my motivation - and for that alone i think it is worth reading.
here's why i don't talk politics at work, once i was having a discussion with the bosses son who was not an architect but an accountant. he did the books filled out paperwork payroll etc...anyway he said something about liberals like "you liberals blah blah blah" and i said look Im not a liberal. Im a leftist and when the revolution comes I will take you out in the alley and put a bullet behind your ear." he never called me a liberal again.
lol.
we dint read fountainhead, i suspect for reasons similar to what acfa gives. we had smart profs. or at least smart enough to know what is fiction and what is the point of books.
we talked once about the teseract house by robert heinlein and i thought that was pretty cool. but we dint hae to read it.
I would stongly suggest you read something by Saul Bellows...."Henderson the Rain King"....It is far more entertaining, and filled with tons of things an architect should know about life.
Write a report on it and turn it in instood of something on Ann's Fountain Head.
If you have a problem wrapping your head around Saul Bellows, then I would say you should pick up any of the many books written by the
San Franscio writter, Richard Brautigan. Trout Fishing in America, Spring Hill Mine Disaster. They say he wrote a book everytime he had a falling out with a lady.
if i were a writer and based my output on lady fallouts, i would have quite a body of work.
vado- bullet? whatever happened to a good ol' fashioned hammer and sickle revolution in the streets with torches and pitchforks?
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - thomas jefferson
howzat for reading? yeah. amateur architect, forefather/founder of our country...
Ayn Rand's "Objectivism" is a slightly watered down social fascism as I see it. Her work is incredibly anti-humanist and it makes me very weary and frightened that The Fountainhead is being taught in architecture schools. Yikes yikes yikes!
With that said, I also count The Fountainhead as a big motivator in getting my arse of the couch when I was 19 and pursuing architecture as a career, so I am a little conflicted about the book. There is some really good stuff in there about creative integrity and sticking to one's guns, as it were, so perhaps it's not all evil....
[...and speaking of random tangents]
The four architects had decided to achieve an effect of harmony and therefore not to use any historical style in its pure form. Peter Keating designed the white marble semi-Doric portico that rose over the main entrance, and the Venetian balconies for which new doors were cut. John Erik Snyte designed the small semi-Gothic spite surmounted by a cross, and the bandcourses of stylized acanthus leaves which were cut into the limestone of the walls. Gordon L. Prescott designed the semi-renaissance cornice, and the glass-enclosed terrace projecting from the third floor. Gus Webb designed a cubistic ornament to frame the original windows, and the modern neon sign up on the roof, which read: “The Hopton Stoddard Home for Subnormal Children.”
“Comes the revolution,” said Gus Webb, looking at the completed structure, “and every kid in the country will have a home like that!”
The original shape of the building remained discernable. It was not like a corpse whose fragments had been mercifully scattered; it was like a corpse hacked to pieces and reassembled.
--Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943), pp. 385-6.
I think I went to a Subnormal School of Architecture, and thank God for that.
Well, as a libertarian architecture student, I loved The Fountain Head. I still think Atlas Shrugged was Rand's opus, though. Love it or hate it, I think it does a great job of identifying two kinds of assholes in this field. Good luck with it. It's a thick one.
As another semi-libertarian architecture student, I also loved it. Its quite inspiring and compelling, even when taken with a grain of salt in terms of the books motives.
i always thought the problem with Rand's "philosophy" was that it failed once you were "married;" either a spouse or partner or situation. the idea of no compromise fails as a concept once there is a counterpoint that you need to consider.
btw...the movie is better than the book.
"life is a compromise" f. scott fitzgerald.
my favorite part of the book is the misogynist sadomasochistic rape scene... so what does that have to do with being modern or an architect?
maybe this is what it has to do with it?
A Center for Ants--
Thanks for your thoughtful response. My question was tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at those (not you) who cry "hate speech" any time someone voices disagreement.
Having failed repeatedly at reading Atlas Shrugged, I now use it to prop up the front of my projector. Best 99 cents I've ever spent.
janosh, respek
Janosh, I think Rand wrote that whole book just to explain pages 900-1000. Give those a shot. Oh, and you can always drop "Who is John Galt?" and libertarians everywhere will know what the hell you're talking about.
without ayn rand, rush would never have done 'anthem'. heard that this morning on the radio and it kicked my a__.
I liked some of the comments here. I understand where some thoughts may be coming from, not others.
I would like to believe that Jae's School had multiple intentions behind the Fountainhead assignment. It's a school of architecture (I assume), and not popular literature. Then the school wanted the kids to write a paper. This calls for an act of thinking on and beyond what Rand scripted. An essentially 'critical' analysis. It would help the students learn to take a stand, whether for or against an idea, or merely identify where Ayn Rand excelled or flawed.
Is it not important to have an opinion? A thought that is your's? A way you see things? I don't think the school's idea was to make a statement about architect's choices of conduct...extremes such as being altruistic or egotist. These are only 2 ends of an otherwise "numeric" scale...like saying too much of darkness is the least of light. Or vice versa. The school probably wants the students to ask questions, relevant ones. Rand's appeal as a writer might interfere with some students' ability to criticize her constructively. This assignment, could help them do it with grace.
(OK, I have more to say, but gotta go for now! Sshh! I am a TA for this class, but the kids are busy with work and behaving like good lil children! Now time's up, I leave. Wud continue on this one.)
?
?
oops
i read pressman's previous book the fountainheadache
out of print? 4 copies from $81-$243.43?!?! crazy
I wonder what libeskind has to say on the issue. :)
yeah we really need some ppl like libeskind, speaking of which, where are the starkitects on archinect??? i'd love to see a debate between per and thom mayne or someone like that.
anyway, i would support this reading assignment, i read the book a few years ago, the summer before college. perhaps it influenced my thinking too much the first year, but i think i have balanced the important points of the Fountainhead with everything that i've learned at school. Architecture is a combination of basically everything, and i never regret reading anything, because i think, inherently there are bits of intelligence in everything (for the most part).
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