“architecture is not buildings. we get confused lots of times because architecture and buildings are not the same, and i don’t think it’s a question of semantics. but i think it’s very important to point out that buildings ARE buildings. they are made out of bricks and stone and concrete and wood and plastic (…) they have a space that they contain, they look like something, they are usually bigger than me (…). architecture is ABOUT buildings (…). a building is a product of arcitecture, and if one looks at it carefully enough, one can find architecture in it (…). the building is, for me, the evidence of architecture.
(…)
so what is architecture? and to ask the fundamental question, what is architecture, is to ask why does one build, why does one make buildings? and i would answer that one makes architecture first of all because it makes us at home in our modern world, which of course makes sense when we make houses, because it produces a sense of belonging, of being at the same place at the same time.
to be at home in the modern world, maybe all you need is a chair. maybe all you need is your ipod. maybe all you need is your mother calling on your telephone. maybe all you need is a good suit. maybe all of these things are not enough, no: i’m sure all of these things are not enough, but i’m also sure that most of our buildings are too much. we have to ask what is the essence beyond a good chair, and before a big house, that makes us feel at home. but we can also try to understand our world through architecture (…) because architecture can be a form of criticism, a criticism in itself. and we will show, in venice, ways in which architecture is moving beyond buildings. not because buildings are bad, but because buidings are the starting point: to find out in which way to be at home in the modern world, in which way to figure out the modern world, in which you can find your way to the modern world”.
- aaron betsky
la biennale di architettura
cincinnati art museum
