Alexander quote: Architecture which is against life
Posted by omohundro on March 31, 2008
In the 20th century
we have passed through a unique period,
one in which architecture as a discipline
has been in a state that is almost unimaginably bad.
Sometimes I think of it as a mass psychosis of unprecedented dimension,
in which the people of earth
– in large numbers and in almost all contemporary societies –
have created a form of architecture which is against life,
insane, image-ridden, hollow.
The ugliness which has been created in the cities of the world,
and the banality and pretentiousness
of many 20th century buildings, streets, and parking lots
have overwhelmed the earth.
… the ugliness of what has been created
is caused by new relations between
time, money, labor, and materials
and by a set of conditions in which the real thing
– authentic architecture that has deep feeling and true worth –
is almost impossible.
from The Nature of Order,
An Essay on the Art of Building and The Nature of the Universe,
Book One, The Phenomenon of Life
by Christopher Alexander
