One thing we can say for 'the white cube' is that it means something we all understand. The phrase describes something both physical and historical that we can agree to like or dislike. But when Renzo Piano says " the Kimbel is a very emotional building" or "you have to work on the immateriality of the museum—light, vibration, proportion" I have no idea what he means. I get that these are subjective calls, both for the architect and the users of the space, but does that mean we have to give up on communication and just ascribe special powers to the architect? Even poets sometimes struggle to articulate the mechanisms by which their work has affect. I'm just poking around in this because I am not conversant with architectural discourse one little bit. Thanks for the Victoria Newhouse link. The book looks interesting and the site provided this outrageous(!) quote: "Museums satisfy.... a deep natural want.... as deep and as natural as sex or sleeping".
Philip Johnson
I almost picked that quote to link to - philip johnson is quite a character. He likes to excite, and I believe that might be an understatement.
Special powers is one way to think about it (and more and more architects are reaching superstar standing). Architects, like visual artists, in some cases like to talk about their work with emotional attribution. You walk into a bright window-lined room you feel differently than when you walk into a dark red book-lined room. Architects are the builders, the interpreters. When we walk into a space they hope to manipulate our experience (obviously there are extremes).
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Philip Johnson
- sally mckay 4-12-2004 8:42 pm
I almost picked that quote to link to - philip johnson is quite a character. He likes to excite, and I believe that might be an understatement.
Special powers is one way to think about it (and more and more architects are reaching superstar standing). Architects, like visual artists, in some cases like to talk about their work with emotional attribution. You walk into a bright window-lined room you feel differently than when you walk into a dark red book-lined room. Architects are the builders, the interpreters. When we walk into a space they hope to manipulate our experience (obviously there are extremes).
- selma 4-12-2004 9:06 pm [add a comment]