Architecture Bulletin Magazine – In defence of architecture
Provoke. In the latest issue of Architecture Bulletin Magazine, Angelo pens the provoke article In defence of architecture. An excerpt can be found below.
For the complete article and issue of the Architecture Bulletin, please visit this link and turn to page 42.
‘There should be much more emotion in architecture. Too many teachers ask students to remove emotion and this would never be the case if we knew that the sacrifice is architecture itself.’
In our profession, we have a duty to act in defence of architecture; in defence of how it can transform the human condition. The familiar ideas of ‘narrative’ and other ‘distractions’ detract from the relevance of architecture as its own creative force. Our profession has relied too much upon adjunct ideas. Architecture should not, for instance, be made of gimmicks or tricks, nor strung on a line of subject-matter. So often the subjects surrounding architecture are used to laud architectural work, but this is a decoy.
For example, if a work is environmentally excellent, this does not immediately make it a great work of architecture. It needs to be a great work of architecture before it is an environmental achievement.
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Sketch by Angelo Candalepas of La Congiunta Museum (Giornico, Switzerland) by Peter Märkli, 2018