I thought I'd share a few interesting Arthur Erickson quotes (on the nature of architecture's role in everyday culture) that I found in Edith Iglauer's Seven Stones: A Portrait of Arthur Erickson, Architect:
- Everything I do, everything I see is through architecture. It has given me a vehicle for looking at the world. I am not involved in the aesthetics of architecture or interested in design as such. I'm interested in what buildings can do beyond what they look like, and how they can affect whole areas of people's lives. I have never done a building where I didn't attempt to see it in a new philosophical or social way. I could have asked questions in any field, but I am doing it through my buildings. Now I want to build with all details suppressed, to make what I build look as if it had just happened - as if there was nothing studied, no labour or art involved. (p. 19)And if you would like to find out how Erickson waged a war on the raccoons that fished in his koi pond, who won, and how the black swans got involved along the way as well as the neighbour's cat - you'll have to grab the book yourself for that epic tale.
- Architects are so rarely aware of their own power of communication , and therefore most of what we see is indifferent building, which nevertheless affects us by its indifference. (p.60).
And some international news I could not possibly omit on this local architecture blog - one of my architectural heroes has finally picked up a Pritzker Prize. Congratulations to Peter Zumthor!
Zumthor's therme in Vals