If architecture is going to nudge, cajole, and inspire a community to challenge the status quo into making responsible changes, it will take the subversive leadership of academics and practitioners who keep reminding students of the profession’s responsibilities.
Interpretation
Architecture can inspire communities to drive positive change through responsible design and leadership.
This quote emphasizes the vital role that architecture plays in motivating communities to re-evaluate and improve their circumstances. Samuel Mockbee advocates for the necessity of strong leadership from both educators and practitioners in the field, who are responsible for instilling in students an awareness of their ethical duties as architects to affect social change.
In practice
In a talk on sustainable design, one might say, 'As Samuel Mockbee noted, architecture should challenge the status quo and inspire our communities.'
Who’s afraid of the big, bad buildings? Everyone, because there are so many things about gigantism that we just don’t know. The gamble of triumph or tragedy at this scale — and ultimately it is a gamble — demands an extraordinary payoff. The trade center towers could be the start of a new skyscraper age or the biggest tombstones in the world.
Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human co-existence.
A greater focus on design in all new homes would make the best use of land, create homes and public spaces, and reinforce the structures of urban life.
My architectural drive was to design new types of buildings to help poor people, especially following natural disasters and catastrophes... I will use whatever time is left to me to keep doing what I have been doing, which is to help humanity.
Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.
My passion and great enjoyment for architecture, and the reason the older I get the more I enjoy it, is because I believe we - architects - can effect the quality of life of the people.
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