Quote

Does an architecture to assuage the spirit have a place in all this? Unfortunately we are no longer the interpreters of our culture's myths but the followers of that dubious client, the developer, who has little patience with the art of architecture, the fine detail and obscure promise, which can upset his financial activity.

Arthur Erickson

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Arthur Erickson
Age: 84 †
Born: 1924
Born: June 14
Died: 2009
Died: May 20
Architect
University Teacher
Vancouver
British Columbia
Arthur Charles Erickson
Arthur C. Erickson
Activity
Obscure
Longer
Followers
Assuage
Fine
Unfortunately
Developer
Culture
Upset
Interpreters
Spirit
Patience
Dubious
Place
Architecture
Client
Doe
Financial
Myths
Little
Promise
Detail

More quotes by Arthur Erickson

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The delusion of entertainment is devoid of meaning. It may amuse us for a bit, but after the initial hit we are left with the dark feeling of desolation.
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Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within.
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The obsession with performance left no room for the development of the intuitive or spiritual impact of space and form other than the aesthetic of the machine itself.
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We find Japan a little more difficult to understand because it has proven its 20th century prowess though the ancient traditions still persist.
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No wonder the film industry started in the desert in California where, like all desert dwellers, they dream their buildings, rather than design them.
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Whenever we witness art in a building, we are aware of an energy contained by it.
Arthur Erickson
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Today's developer is a poor substitute for the committed entrepreneur of the last century for whom the work of architecture represented a chance to celebrate the worth of his enterprise.
Arthur Erickson
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This great, though disastrous, culture can only change as we begin to stand off and see... the inveterate materialism which has become the model for cultures around the world.
Arthur Erickson
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The way of architecture is the quiet voice that underlies it and has guided it from the beginning.
Arthur Erickson
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We can appreciate but not really understand the medieval town. We cannot comprehend its compactness, the contiguity of all its buildings as a single uninterrupted whole.
Arthur Erickson
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The artist likes to seem totally responsible for his work. Often he begins to explain it, to make it appear as if it were a reasonable process.
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God's designs may be frequent justification for our actions, but it is we, the self-made men, who take the credit.
Arthur Erickson
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The innovative spirit was America's strongest attribute, transforming everything into a brave new world, but there lingered an insecurity about the arts.
Arthur Erickson
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Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoric sense of freedom.
Arthur Erickson
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Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart.
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We are not peddlers of the fashionable. We believe that good design defies fashion, is truly innovative, eminently sensible, yet a source of inspiration to those who have the pleasure of living with it.
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Western history has been a history of deed done, actions performed and results achieved.
Arthur Erickson
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There is a single thread of attitude, a single direction of flow, that joins our present time to it's early burgeoning in Mediterranean civilization...
Arthur Erickson
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Space has always been the spiritual dimension of architecture. It is not the physical statement of the structure so much as what it contains that moves us.
Arthur Erickson
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We are stymied by regulations, limited choice and the threat of litigation. Neither consultants nor industry itself provide research which takes architecture forward.
Arthur Erickson