Lecture by Peter van Dijk

I didn't fall asleep at all watching this lecture... he's really interesting. And the things he talked about... How one should get a solid grounding as a person (history, literature, philosophy, etc), how heritage is not a cosmetic but something living and evolving, how instead of focusing on trying by hook or by crook to be original one should first try to be good... things like that, I might turn them over in my head for a while... How architecture is a social art, living, interacting with people... how a building should have a soul, a church that looks like a church... Louis Kahn's buildings will be great ruins... the play of natural light in the interiors of buildings, the amazing gothic cathedrals... How 'modern' is a spirit, not a style... a spirit where one tries to improve existing conditions through the methods available at the point in time... how he misses the spirit of the early avant garde, where it is not all about ego...

I'll think about it for a while...




"Design is about exploring the possibilities, not just pulling something out of the clouds. It is about finding the best solution. A lot of it ends up in the waste basket, but you can go back to it. It involves a lot of self-criticism... but eventually, you get there."