121 Definitions of Architecture
121 Definitions of Architecture
121 Definitions of Architecture
by Becky Quintal
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There are at least as many definitions of architecture as there are architects or people who comment on the
practice of it. While some embrace it as art, others defend architecture’s seminal social responsibility as its most
definitive attribute. To begin a sentence with “Architecture is” is a bold step into treacherous territory. And yet,
many of us have uttered — or at least thought— “Architecture is…” while we’ve toiled away on an important
project, or reflected on why we’ve chosen this professional path.
Most days, architecture is a tough practice; on others, it is wonderfully satisfying. Perhaps, though, most
importantly, architecture is accommodating and inherently open to possibility.
This collection of statements illustrates the changing breadth of architecture’s significance; we may define it
differently when talking among peers, or adjust our statements for outsiders.
A note: In an age that is particularly enamored with capturing ideas in 140 characters or less, it is tempting to
take these remarks out of context. Yet many are part of a larger, nuanced conversation.Sources and/or context
are included for each definition.
1. "Architecture is definitely a political act." - Peter Eisenman in Haaretz
2. "Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough." - Zaha Hadid in The Guardian
3. "Architecture is by definition a very collaborative process." - Joshua Prince-Ramus in Fast Company
4. "Architecture is a way of seeing, thinking and questioning our world and our place in it." - Thom Mayne in
his Prtizker Prize Acceptance Speech
5. "Architecture is the art and science of making sure that our cities and buildings actually fit with the way we
want to live our lives: the process of manifesting our society into our physical world. - Bjarke Ingels in AD
Interviews
6. "Architecture is merciless: it is what it is, it works or doesn’t, and you can clearly see the difference."
- Jacques Herzog in a lecture at Columbia University
7. “Architecture is always related to power and related to large interests, whether financial or political."
- Bernard Tschumi in The New York Times
8. "Architecture is a good example of the complex dynamic of giving." - Jeffrey Inaba in World of Giving
9. "Architecture is too complex for just one person to do it, and I love collaboration." - Richard Rogersin The
Guardian
10. "Architecture is the most powerful deed that a man can imagine." - Ben van Berkel and Caroline
Bos in Volume
11. "Architecture is an act of optimism." - Nicolai Ouroussoff in The LA Times
12. "Architecture is an artificial fact." - Mario Botta in Perspecta
13. "Architecture is full of romantics who think that even relatively small changes to the built environment
create the aspiration for a better society." - Mark Wigley in Surface Magazine
14. "Architecture is for us, the public, and it is going to get scuffed." - Alexandra Lange in Design Observer
15. "Architecture is the work of nations..." John Ruskin in Stones of Venice
16. "Architecture is always dream and function, expression of a utopia and instrument of a convenience."
- Roland Barthes in "Semiology and Urbanism"
17. "Architecture is an expression of values – the way we build is a reflection of the way we live." - Norman
Foster in The European
18. "Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit." - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in "ID Merger Speech"
25. "Architecture is an untapped source of magnificent stories waiting to be imagined, visualized, and built."
- Matthew Hoffman in "Blank Space Launches Architecture Storytelling Competition"
26. "Architecture is about serving others through the design of the built environment." - Kevin J Singhin "21
Rules for A Successful Life in Architecture"
27. "Architecture is a very complex effort everywhere. It’s very rare that all the forces that need to coincide to
actually make a project proceed are happening at the same time." - Rem Koolhaas in Co.Design
28. "Architecture is intended to transcend the simple need for shelter and security by becoming an expression of
artistry." - Jay A. Pritzker in his 1985 Pritzker Ceremony Speech
29. "Architecture is the only art that you can't help but feel. You can avoid paintings, you can avoid music, and
you can even avoid history. But good luck getting away from architecture." - Philippe Daverio in Humans of
New York
30. "Architecture is the petrification of a cultural moment." - Jean Nouvel in Newsweek
31. "Architecture is characterised by endurance and longevity: a long education, long training, long hours and
long lives." - Catherine Slessor in The Architectural Review
32. "Architecture is a muddle of irreconcilable things." - Juhani Pallasmaa in The Architectural Review
33. "Architecture is, in many ways, a very specific type of science fiction; it is its own genre of speculative
thought," - Geoff Manaugh in Architect
34. "Architecture is largely irrelevant to the great mass of the world's population because architects have chosen
to be." - Bruce Mau in Architect
35. "Architecture is becoming less about a single walled-off phallus on the horizon, and more about parks and
public spaces which engage with the city." - Alissa Walker in Gizmodo
36. "Architecture is most often a victory over the process of creating architecture." - Sam Jacob in Log
42. "Architecture is capable of absorbing anything, and hence tends to dissolve into everything." - Ole
Bouman in Volume
43. "Architecture is not just a matter of technology and aesthetics but the frame for a way of life – and, with
luck, an intelligent way of life." - Bernard Rudofsky
44. "Architecture is a discipline where you can have multivalent interests. You could be a philosopher, a
geographer, a scientist, an artist, an engineer; you can be poetic about it." - Toshiko Mori in Metropolis
45. "Architecture is supposed to be about a higher purpose." - Stanley Tigerman in Newsweek
46. "Architecture is the most public of the arts, and the public are severe critics." - Eric Parry in The Guardian
47. "Architecture is a formmaker, problem‐solver and environment‐creator, and the international exposition
is its laboratory." - Ada Louise Huxtable in New York Times
48. "Architecture is supposed to complete nature. Great architecture makes nature more beautiful—it gives it
power."- Claudio Silvestrin in Elle Decor
49. "Architecture is a small piece of this human equation, but for those of us who practice it, we believe in its
potential to make a difference, to enlighten and to enrich the human experience, to penetrate the barriers of
misunderstanding and provide a beautiful context for life's drama." - Frank Gehry in his 1989 Pritzker Prize
Ceremony Speech
50. "Architecture is not a private affair; even a house must serve a whole family and its friends, and most
buildings are used by everybody, people of all walks of life. If a building is to meet the needs of all the people,
the architect must look for some common ground of understanding and experience." - John Portman in "The
Architect as Developer"
51. “Architecture is a social art. And as a social art, it is our social responsibility to make sure that we are
delivering architecture that meets not only functional and creature comforts, but also spiritual comfort.”
- Samuel Mockbee
52. "Architecture is too important to be left to men alone." - Sarah Wigglesworth in Parlour
53. "Architecture is not a purely private transaction between architects and clients. It affects everyone, so it
ought to be understandable to everyone. - Blair Kamin
60. "Architecture is blessed and cursed with more dimensions than its greats know what to do with: the three of
sensible space, the celebrated fourth of travel through it; and others, ineffable, beyond—the fifth of utility, say,
the seventh of happy accident, the ominous eleventh." - Philip Nobel in Metropolis
61. "Architecture is a mystery that must be preserved." - Jean Nouvel in Huffington Post
62. "Architecture is only as great as the aspirations of its society." - Lisa Rochon in Globe and Mail
63."Architecture is like the picture of Dorian Gray: It can look beautiful in public, while somewhere out of sight
its true soul withers and rots." - Lance Hosey in Architect
64. "Architecture is about reason-right?" - Alfred Caldwell in Chicago Tribune
65. "Architecture is a profession of optimism." - Johanna Hurme in spacing
66. "Architecture is about the manipulation of light: both artificial light and day lighting."- Tom
Kundigin Architectural Record
67. “Architecture is expected to carry too much weight in many cases.” - Patricia Patkau in Globe and Mail
68. “Architecture is not a goal. Architecture is for life and pleasure and work and for people. The picture frame,
not the picture.” - William Wurster
69. "Architecture is the most obvious flower of a society's culture." - Alan Balfour in Art Papers
70. "Architecture is more than making a statement from the street. It's making an environment for living.”
- Dion Neutra in Los Angeles Times
71. “Architecture is a translation process.” - Fernando Romero in Metropolis
78. "Architecture is complicated and like other complicated things it is prone to entropy from the outset." - Guy
Horton in Metropolis
79. "Architecture is where imagination meets life." - Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa in their 2010 Pritzker
Prize Ceremony Speech
80. "Architecture is an incredible ego trip. You get things done, you build them, you look at them. That's why I
enjoy life and don't have an ulcer. - Stanley Tigerman in the Chicago Tribune
81. "Architecture is a strange field where we’re constantly asked to demonstrate over and over why design
matters, to everyone, all the time. It’s exhausting." - Amale Andraos in Metropolis
82. "Architecture is about the lack of stability and how to address it. Architecture is about the void and how to
cross it. Architecture is about inhospitability and how to live within it." - Geoff Manaugh in The Guardian
83. "Architecture is both an art and a practical pursuit, and the profession has always been divided between
those who emphasize the art, that is pure design, and those who give priority to the practical." - Paul
Goldberger in New York Times
84. Architecture is one of the reflections of the permanence of a civilization. - Charlie Rose
85. Architecture is not a profession for the faint-hearted, the weak-willed, or the short-lived. - Martin
Filler in The New York Review of Books
86. "Architecture is a very dangerous job. If a writer makes a bad book, eh, people don't read it. But if you make
bad architecture, you impose ugliness on a place for a hundred years." - Renzo Piano in Time
87. "Architecture is the pathology of the contemporary era." - Forensic Architecture
88. "Architecture is a discipline directly engaged with shaping enclosure, of erecting and toppling barriers or—
more explicitly—of extending and limiting ‘freedoms’." - E. Sean Bailey & Erandi de Silvain "BI's First Print
Edition Released - FREE: Architecture on the Loose"
89. "Architecture is interesting, but by itself it means nothing." - Massimiliano Fuksas in New York Times
96. "Architecture is a frame of mind, it’s about ideas; the profession is about how to translate those ideas into
the real world." - Christopher Janney in Architectural Record
97. "Architecture is an active participant in the interactions of people within it." - Jonathan C.
Molloyin ArchDaily
98. "Architecture is not only developing in its own realm, it is constantly assimilating achievements from other
fields. - Maya Engeli in Volume
99. "Architecture is first and foremost about serving people and society. This is an architect’s responsibility: to
design buildings that fulfill their practical purpose, bring people together, and connect us to the natural world
while preserving precious resources." - Steven Ehrlich in Metropolis
100. "Architecture is about building a place in the universe, not about mimicking a depleted, decrepit reality."
- Stefanos Polyzoides in The LA Times
101. "Architecture is a public commodity, and as such invites public scrutiny." - Reed Kroloff in Architecture*
102. “Architecture is not about the creation of newness but rather about the fulfillment of needs and
expectations." - André Tavares in Forbes
103. "Architecture is the same as advertising for communicating the brand." - Patrizio Bertelli in The New York
Times
104. "Architecture is not just about accommodating very prescriptive demands—it’s doing it in a way that
stimulates the unfolding of life. - Bjarke Ingels in Co.Design
105. "Architecture is exposed to life. If its body is sensitive enough, it can assume a quality that bears witness to
past life." - Peter Zumthor in Thinking Architecture
106. "Architecture is flexible.” - Krzysztof Wodiczko in St. Louis Post - Dispatch*
107. "Architecture is a combination of science and fiction." - Winy Maas in Domus
119. "Architecture is one of those disciplines that has no shortage of voices." - Guy Horton in Metropolis
120.“Architecture is always a temporary modification of the space, of the city, of the landscape. We think that
it’s permanent. But we never know.” - Jean Nouvel in The New York Times
121. "Architecture is like life: a matter of trade-offs." - Paul Goldberger in The New York Times
*These links can only be viewed by those who have access to Proquest and JSTOR. Many universities and
public libraries provide access to their students, alumni and patrons.
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Becky Quintal
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