Architecture begins to matter when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.
Interpretation
Architecture transcends mere shelter when it evokes deep emotions and thoughts.
This quote by Paul Goldberger emphasizes that architecture is not just about providing a physical space for living; it is an art form that should connect with people on an emotional level. The true significance of architecture lies in its ability to inspire feelings of delight, sadness, confusion, or awe, making it an integral part of the human experience rather than just a functional necessity.
In practice
During a speech on the importance of urban design, one could reference this quote to highlight the emotional impact of architectural spaces.
New York remains what it has always been : a city of ebb and flow, a city of constant shifts of population and economics, a city of virtually no rest. It is harsh, dirty, and dangerous, it is whimsical and fanciful, it is beautiful and soaring - it is not one or another of these things but all of them, all at once, and to fail to accept this paradox is to deny the reality of city existence.
I think that I still have it in my heart someday to paint a bookshop with the front yellow and pink in the evening...like a light in the midst of the darkness.
You don't decide to paint. It's like getting hungry and going to the kitchen to eat. It's a need, not a choice.
Photographers stop photographing a subject too soon before they have exhausted the possibilities.
What is the main problem of the actor? It is to keep the audience awake, and not let them go to sleep, then wake up and go home feeling they've wasted their money.
For the film maker must come by his convention, as painters and writers and musicians have done before him.
The devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God....Music is a gift and grace of God, not an invention of men. Thus it drives out the devil and makes people cheerful. Then one forgets all wrath, impurity, and other devices.
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