Architecture is not like singing in front of two hundred thousand people to knock them over. Nor something producing results in a month’s time. It can’t be diffused through the internet to entertain either. It is not good at those things but when it comes to structuring time, environment and behavior, architecture is the strongest of all arts.
Tsukamoto, December 12, 2002
I read that quote this weekend and it’s resonating. I think it’s very true.
Architecture is a very slow art. It starts influencing things five, ten years after being built but it’s been designed years before completion. So more like 20 years later, it does what it was supposed to do then.
The 1920s Los Angeles bungalows gave the city its coolness in the 40s, when Hollywood was then big business, showing to the world what it was like to be a movie star in L.A. living in luscious gardens in low rise and simple houses.
Now we’re truly understanding what 2000s high rise grey and metallic outside finish are doing to our souls and I guess in 2040 we’ll see the effect of 2020s black aesthetic everywhere, for real. It’ll be associated with folks dissociating from everything, we’ll learned.
The earth is demanding it anyways, let’s go back to simple, individual low rise structures lost in the native Cali plants with a few nice cars around please. Also colors.