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Life is rich, always changing, always challenging, and we architects have the task of transmitting into wood, concrete, glass and steel, of transforming human aspirations into habitable and meaningful space.

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
Rich
Glass
Aspirations
Space
Task
Transforming
Human
Glasses
Wood
Humans
Meaningful
Challenging
Always
Woods
Architect
Life
Tasks
Steel
Habitable
Changing
Aspiration
Transmitting
Challenges
Concrete
Architects

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Whenever we witness art in a building, we are aware of an energy contained by it.
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The way of architecture is the quiet voice that underlies it and has guided it from the beginning.
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I plead for conservation of human culture, which is much more fragile than nature herself. We needn't destroy other cultures with the force of our own.
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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.
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With production alone as the goal, industry in North America was dominated by the assembly line, standardization for mass consumption.
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Nearly all of the advances in structural and aesthetic innovation is coming from abroad.
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Rationalism is the enemy of art, though necessary as a basis for architecture.
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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 stymied by regulations, limited choice and the threat of litigation. Neither consultants nor industry itself provide research which takes architecture forward.
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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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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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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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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.
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Profit and bottom line, the contemporary mantra, eliminates the very source of architectural expression.
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We have today a fairly thorough knowledge of the early Greco-Roman period because our motivations are the same.
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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.
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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.
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Our universities advocate fragmentation in their course systems.
Arthur Erickson
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We are yet to have a conscience at all about the exploitation of human cultures.
Arthur Erickson
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We are guilty for sending teams into foreign countries to advise them how to be like us.
Arthur Erickson