What is architecture?

  • 14 Jul 2009
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  • Videos

For MAYA design, authors of this video, What is Architecture?, that is architecture.

And for you?

Cite: Basulto , David. "What is architecture?" 14 Jul 2009. ArchDaily. Accessed 24 May 2013. <http://www.archdaily.com/28823>

36 comments

    • Thumb up Thumb down -1

      clearly this just taps right into the nervous area we all inhabit, of trying to define something that should by all academic/philosophical education transcend definition. but then why do we put so much thought/study into a ‘field’ that defies a ‘definition’ or a path of conclusion. architecture is the exploration and the development of this realm, not the conclusion of a discussion or an animation

      Reply
  4. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    So.. every other kind of design; product, industrial, etc, would fall under architecture. Hmm… somehow I think I’ve been thinking that way. So I somewhat agree with it. in a sense of architecture as an idea, maybe not necessarily the real technicality of it.

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  5. Thumb up Thumb down +1

    architecture is (in brief): investigating and controlling the physical world´s influence on the state of mind of the human race. a cup is a brilliant point of view.

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  6. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    a little too crazy with the blur/focus effect.
    a tiny bit too much pan/zoom movement, gave me a slight Q3-railgun nausea feeling

    loved the animation
    switched between 2D/3D were very nice.

    didn’t pay much attention to the content however.

    nice work, would love to see the next one.

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    • Thumb up Thumb down 0

      i can agree with you. specially after having read Rafael Moneo’s On Typology. He even uses a similar example to that of the cup. But, you know, whatever. Who cares about architecture anymore.

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  9. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    The irony of this clip is that it was produced to describe INFORMATION architecture. This essentially describes the point of view of information architects. MAYA Design, software designers, have dictated a very valid description of architecture that applies to architects. This company reminds me of IDEO.

    This clip applies to ways “building” architects are NOT applying their skills. Commerce of designing a building may not allow the full reduction this video describes. Yet the clip speaks to parsing out irrelevant information, reducing to the needs (program perhaps) and then allowing for “design” to occur after. I’ve been trying to understand this clip and how it relates to the profession of an architect. This clip is foretelling of an architect’s relevance. Are architects influencing construction methods, materials, sustainability, and safety? Or are we being dictated to and applying style?

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    • Thumb up Thumb down 0

      you made me watch it several times, 54 – thanks.
      I’d like to think that true architecture does affect method, medium and experience. – often after the program has been defined.
      The program, (or as MAYA puts it, the architecture) for a cup can be as infinite as the designs that stem from its program, can’t it? And at some point, it’s fair to assume, that its architecture can simply change during the design process.
      In that regard – to respond to john – some industrial designers are engaged in this verb “architecture”. And many architects, are simply designers.
      stupid cartoon…

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    • Thumb up Thumb down 0

      Yes and No… I think architects can and should be pushed further than just applying style and the afore mentioned functions. Let me put it this way, how can we push the cup design so far that it is no longer just a cup or how a person uses a cup. Even though architects are limited to just the design of the “object,” its the combination of its different elements along side conceptual ideas and theory which lends itself to inevitably unique solutions that can even inspire. Otherwise these mass produced cookie cutter “cups” just become another form that follows function.

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  12. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    What is ‘architecture’? It is just like all other word that can be defined differently from person to person.

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  13. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    So basically the video is saying that ‘architecture’ is so accessible that there is no point in me going to an architecture school where I had to fight tooth and nail to get into.

    Thanks.

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    • Thumb up Thumb down 0

      Access to architecture is not controlled or solely defined by academia – nor should it be.
      After your schooling tenure, you will have the legal right to call yourself a architect.
      Whether or not you are practicing architecture at that point, is subjective.

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      • Thumb up Thumb down 0

        Actually you are not legally right to call yourself an architect until you have your license here in the U.S. and are limited to how big of a project you can work on (that is unless you get it signed off by someone else.)

  14. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    a critical sigth of architecture….good for them.
    For me, architecture born in just 5 human acts or facts:
    1.to feed
    2.to sleep
    3.to waste our biological necessities (human waste matter)
    4.to breathe
    5.sexuality

    I think so….

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  17. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    May I paraphrase ‘the dude’…. that’s like your opinion, man.
    And I add,there’s got to be more to it than that …. mi amigo.
    Anyway …. good simple interpretation of (cup) architecture.

    Reply

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