Is glass still glass? Notwithstanding the significant changes that have taken place in technology and culture since the early twentieth century, it can be said that glass is still glass because it never was just glass. Glass architecture was and continues to be both technological and cultural, mobilized in the service of aesthetic affects that are sometimes weak and sometimes strong.
A city ! It is the grip of man upon nature. It is a human operation directed against nature, a human organism both for protection and for work. It is a creation
One of humanity’s prime drives is to understand and be understood. All other living creatures are designed for highly specialized tasks. Man seems unique as the comprehensive comprehender and coordinator of local universe affairs.
The fatal weakness of manifestos is their inherent lack of evidence. Manhattan’s problem is the opposite: it is a mountain range of evidence without manifesto.
Learning from the existing landscape is a way of being revolutionary for an architect.
A house is a machine for living in. Baths, sun, hot-water, cold-water, warmth at will, conservation of food, hygiene, beauty in the sense of good proportion. An armchair is a machine for sitting in and so on.
The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory.