An idea of home
Japanese architecture, on the other hand, doesn’t try to be imposing or perfect, because it is built in the spirit of wabi-sabi. The tradition of making structures out of wood presupposes their impermanence and the need for future generations to rebuild them. Japanese culture accepts the fleeting nature of the human being and everything we create.
Francesc Miralles • Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
Vernacular architecture is not the product of a single visionary, but the collective, learned wisdom of a community. It represents a collaborative effort where knowledge and skills are shared and passed down through generations.
Coleman McCormick • Designing from Experience, Not Expertise
architects are now taught to design houses, not homes, thus contributing to the uprooting that feeds into our growing inability to genuinely connect with the world. There is a “poetics of home”—linked to memory, emotions, dreams, identity, and intimacy—that functional architecture and “modern living” have foreclosed
Arturo Escobar • Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds (New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century)
Taking architecture seriously therefore makes some singular and strenuous demands upon us. It requires that we open ourselves to the idea that we are affected by our surroundings even when they are made of vinyl and would be expensive and time-consuming to ameliorate. It means conceding that we are inconveniently vulnerable to the colour of our
... See moreAlain de Botton • The Architecture of Happiness (Vintage International)
It's a deep insecurity of mine that my home doesn't feel like an actual portal into the depths of my soul. Facilitating authentic design is, after all, what I do for a living.
Lauren Sands • Is It Impossible To Design An Authentic Home?
Notes for future business
However, as I crossed the threshold, excitement gave way to disappointment. Instead of feeling connected to the natural world, I found myself strangely isolated within the confines of the glass walls. The minimalist aesthetic that I had admired from afar now felt cold and impersonal up close.
It was then I realised architecture is not about creating structures that are aesthetically pleasing or merely functional: it’s about designing spaces that evoke emotion and resonate with the human spirit. The Farnsworth House may have been a triumph of modernist design, but it lacked the warmth and humanity architecture should embody.
There's this concept called "vernacular architecture" that refers to a style or design developed from local needs, using local materials, and reflecting local traditions. In contrast to formal architect's academic professionalization, the vernacular architect actually isn't an architect at all , by modern definitions.
Coleman McCormick • Designing from Experience, Not Expertise
But when architecture falls out of sync with the conditions we live in, home begins to feel more and more precarious. The reason we dislike contemporary architecture is because it fails to achieve this essential purpose, to, as the architect Antonio Sant’Elia put it, “freely and audaciously harmonize man with his environment”.