Conversation

Replying to
yeah so hopefully now you can see the fundamental impedance mismatch: alexander was never trying to make a "statement" with his work like his contemporaries do, he was primarily trying to build something that worked for his clients—he didn't give a shit about getting in magazines
2
2
Replying to
Which is also fine by me. If innovators weren’t willing to try new things on clients’ dimes we’d never get anything new. Faster horses etc. Frontiers always have both fraud and novel shit people didn’t know they wanted until somebody decided to give it to them,
1
1
Replying to
alexander's contract stipulated he could unilaterally reorganize the construction budget; indeed a big chunk of the cost of the mary rose museum proposal was an innovative design for piles so the structure could be built on clay for under £10M
1
1
Replying to
Okay that’s the sort of thing I’d lead with if I were trying to convince people convinced he was trad that he wasn’t…it’s the buried lede If you turn this thread into an essay, I’d open with that. Took a conversation buried 15 replies deep to get there.
2
1
Replying to and
I mean for people hostile to trad stuff (and I admittedly am fairly hostile) the main thing they’re *friendly* to is novelty and innovation and evidence that someone is willing to break from tradition.
1
1
Replying to
iirc a lot of his projects involve some kind of in situ invention; regular use of sophisticated materials and techniques (FEM, shotcrete/gunite); his meta-innovation was stipulating that he didn't have to a) invent up front on spec or b) beg permission
1
2
Replying to and
the fact that he likes to use compression structures with pitched roofs is mainly cause they work, and he's not interested in precarious cantilevers or fancy parametric undulating glass/titanium/whatever because that serves little purpose other than to advertise the architect
1
Replying to
Well now. He solved the problem he cared about. Doesn’t mean it’s the only one worth caring about. To dismiss that stuff as mere self-aggrandizement is as bad as you say dismissing CA as a trad is. Customer driven vs product driven.
Replying to
so, you're correct in your inference that alexander believes it is Wrong™ to design buildings that focus on the "boldness" of the architecture or whatever; i believe there is a time and place for such artifacts but a world of only "bold" architecture is a dysfunctional one
1
Show replies