Archinect
anchor

Architecture is ... (cause we don't have enough fun threads)

G4tor

Whether in school, unemployed or working, our view/thoughts of architecture is different and based on the individual.

 

Whether thoughts past or thoughts current are irrelevant to this thread. However,  you have to phrase your sentence in such a way that describe how you feel/felt about architecture at a certain point in your life.

 

Not my views per se but here are some examples to get you started:

Architecture is going to bed every night thinking of how to design the perfect bathroom

Architecture is like a breath of fresh air in a barren landscape

Architecture was over nighters and getting my model thrown out the window

 
Aug 8, 13 8:06 pm
LITS4FormZ

Architecture is a "choose your own adventure" profession.

Architecture rarely involves architecture. 

Aug 8, 13 8:39 pm  · 
 · 
observant

Where do I start?

1.  Architecture is like an obsessive compulsive disorder.

2.  Architecture is more multifaceted than most lines of work.

3.  Architecture is what you do when you don't know what you want to be because, essentially, you are most professions rolled int one. (a)

4.  Architecture is the least professional of the professions. (b)

5. Architecture is something you wish people who should have been artists or engineers had stayed out of.

6.  Architecture is sort of like an opinion and an ass hole - every ass hole has an opinion about architecture.

7.  Architecture is wondering at night if you got the treads, risers, nosings, railing heights and turns, landings, and implicit proportions of structural members right for a complicated staircase and its details.

8.  Architecture is a word that should be next to pissy in the dictionary.

9.  Architecture is at its best when you sketch on napkins on the cocktail party circuit and stupid (sons of) bitches are back at the office doing the grunt work. (c)

10. Architecture is what you wind up seeing when you're on vacation, when your intent was to get away from it.

(a) very funny friend from the school years

(b) the only astute observation by someone I met through work

(c) derivative of an off-handed comment by a professor

Aug 8, 13 8:57 pm  · 
 · 

What is architecture?
Art at its most compromised and corrupted,
Science at its weakest and most debased,
Culture at its least accurate, most inscribed form.
The physical tyranny of economics,
The tangible absurdity of politics,
A sly mirror which reveals too much about what we are and what we want.
In the end, a protest against homogeneity, eternity, and gravity. 

Aug 9, 13 1:52 am  · 
 · 

...inspiring, exhilarating, and demoralizing. sometimes at the same time. 

Aug 9, 13 8:44 am  · 
 · 
won and done williams

Architecture bores your family on family vacations.

Architecture sounds more impressive than it really is. 

Architecture is most fun when you are not in the office.

Architecture is at its best when you are making the most mundane decisions.

Aug 9, 13 8:58 am  · 
 · 
won and done williams

One more:

Architecture is the momentary, periodic anxiety that that detail you designed may not have been sufficient to hold up that 300lb. light fixture and the carnage that ensues.

Aug 9, 13 9:11 am  · 
 · 

Architecture is slogging through years of impossible clients, incompetent builders and obtuse building codes all for that rare project where an astute client values and appreciates your work so much they are actually happy to pay you for it.

Aug 9, 13 10:29 am  · 
 · 
Benjamin_

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uloc1iW-pgc

Good for a Friday laugh

Aug 9, 13 12:28 pm  · 
 · 

^ Brilliant. Thanks for sharing!

Aug 9, 13 12:37 pm  · 
 · 
Thayer-D

Architecture is fun.

Aug 9, 13 1:49 pm  · 
 · 

With credit to my former fellow student Aditya Sood, architecture is material and memory.

Aug 9, 13 6:25 pm  · 
 · 
backbay

@observant:  are you serious?  you put footnotes in an internet post?  props.

Aug 9, 13 6:34 pm  · 
 · 
observant

^

Well, I couldn't take credit for 3 of these.  They were keepers someone else came up with.  Also, typo on 3) - s/b "into" instead of "int."

Aug 9, 13 10:32 pm  · 
 · 
awesomekeith

SUPER ITS SUPER 

Aug 10, 13 1:40 am  · 
 · 

"The physical tyranny of economics,"

Nice one, Alec.

Aug 10, 13 7:55 am  · 
 · 

Architecture is a dog from Hell. That's Love.

Aug 10, 13 8:18 am  · 
 · 
boy in a well

l'arquitectura es las chupacabras. eso es amor.

 

 

all our threads are fun.

you got a problem?

Aug 10, 13 8:40 am  · 
 · 

Architecture is a reflection of the values of society.

Aug 10, 13 12:04 pm  · 
 · 
observant

Architecture is a reflection of the values of society.

... meaning it's more bad than good.

Aug 10, 13 12:21 pm  · 
 · 
Architecture is a frequent desire to just burn your house down and start over rather than clean it.
Aug 10, 13 4:27 pm  · 
 · 

Architecture is suppressing the frequent desire to slap some sense into (pick one:) your client, the contractor, the building inspector,  the client's decorator, all of the above.

Aug 10, 13 7:14 pm  · 
 · 
snooker-doodle-dandy

Architecture is obeying the Law....Zoning Codes, Building Codes, Energy Codes, Sanitation Codes, Ass Hole Codes....

Aug 10, 13 7:26 pm  · 
 · 
archetecton

Architecture draws from psychology, physics, chemistry and neuroscience. It is an art on the cusp of maturing into a science.

Aug 10, 13 9:35 pm  · 
 · 

Architecture exists at the intersection of the elliptical orbits of two stars: the bright star of science and the dark star of philosophy.  - Dan Hoffman, more or less.

Aug 10, 13 9:59 pm  · 
 · 

Donna, I prefer your own quote about cleaning house.

Aug 10, 13 11:17 pm  · 
 · 

Hey Archinect! A friend of mine just pointed me to this thread and I think it is absolutely fantastic. Hilarious at times, depressing at others, occasionally somber, and every now and then with a ray of glory.

I hope no one minds, but I would like to add a lot of the comments posted here to an archival project I am currently gestating called, quite simply, 'What is Architecture?'. A few years ago I collected aphorisms, where people say "architecture is * " from over 500 sources since ancient Greece. I'm now trying to collect a new set of declarations to try and historicize the present.

I am running the project in three ways, where anyone can add any sort of aphorism they want, as long as it follows the structure of "architecture is * ": on twitter, using the hashtag #ArchitetureIs; directly on the website, www.what-is-architecture.net; or in person at the Lisbon Triennale.

Anyways, I would like to thank the thread's starter, Jack, and everyone else that has commented and helped work towards a collective understanding of what architecture means today.

Aug 11, 13 3:44 am  · 
 · 
boy in a well

tmi -

co-taught a history course a few years back. freshmen, sophomores .  . .

co-lecturer ended a talk with a popular appeal: what is architecture? I thought it was a total waste of lecture time, a cheap out, time-killing fluff, time better spent giving youngsters concrete information, laziness in the form of the hip current currency of engagement. just my opinion. here's some marx. here too.

Aug 11, 13 7:46 am  · 
 · 
observant

Hey Archinect! A friend of mine just pointed me to this thread and I think it is absolutely fantastic. Hilarious at times, depressing at others, occasionally somber, and every now and then with a ray of glory.

at the Lisbon Triennale.

Welcome to the nut house.  So then:

Architecture is hilarious, depressing, somber, and glorious.

Lisbon, on the other hand, is only glorious.  Of its 4 funiculars, the most popular with tourists is in fact named "Elevador da Gloria."

Aug 11, 13 11:15 am  · 
 · 
Henriette

@observant - reading this make me even more sure of my career change (had hoped to get you advise on rat in separate tread). Architecture is ... I will write down my own views on that. But @jack spelling ; every night I go to bed I wrk on a new idea and every morning in my shower I get some great new visions! 

Architecture is.. An estethic or ugly idea set to please the eye or provoke and wake up ... People's minds and our society.

Thank you. Fantastic tread.

Aug 11, 13 2:16 pm  · 
 · 
observant

Henriette:

Architecture is a line of work that keeps me awake while most others would put me to sleep.

Ask anything you want.

Aug 11, 13 2:25 pm  · 
 · 
Wright.Calvin

Architecture is problem solving from a minute scale to a monumental scale-each design problem requires a different solution.

Architecture is meant to blend in and disappear to let other functions dominate.

Architecture is meant to stand out and overpower and inspire. 

Architecture is spending hours detailing one small joint specifically so it will not be noticed when it is built. 

Architecture is having your best idea come to you when you aren't even working on the project.

Aug 11, 13 8:38 pm  · 
 · 

'Architecture is a system of systems.' - Martin Finio

Aug 11, 13 10:18 pm  · 
 · 
Henriette

@observant, yes I need you advise! I've read many of you comments and would love to get your view on how to best get started. Got some more postings yesterday, but not so encouraging as previous one. Could you share your view this tread please: "Advise needed! Business woman about to realize dream about becoming an architect".

thanks again for inspiration! 

Aug 12, 13 12:18 am  · 
 · 

....a harsh mistress.

Aug 12, 13 12:08 pm  · 
 · 

...nothing like the brochure.

 

Aug 12, 13 12:17 pm  · 
 · 
snooker-doodle-dandy

Henriette.....I want to know what kind of sketch pad you use in your shower? 

Aug 12, 13 6:43 pm  · 
 · 
Sarah Hamilton

Snook, stop thinking of Henriette in the shower!

Aug 13, 13 3:02 pm  · 
 · 
observant

^  +1

s-d-d:  start thinking about "the girl from Ipanema" instead - your wife!

Aug 13, 13 3:04 pm  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: