Simple in form but complex in substance, “What is Architecture?” remains an existential question for a lot of architecture students and young professionals. In an attempt to define this ever-changing interrogation and expose the different visions out there, the interview series: WIA – What is architecture? asks four, straightforward, questions to world-leading architectural designers and thinkers. Seeking to uncover their opinion on what architecture is and what it can do, these short videos reveal responses to “What is architecture? What can architecture do? What is your architectural position? and What is your design method?”.
ArchDaily has collaborated with WIA to release every week, 4 of these conversations, and to invite you to take on the challenge and answer these questions. This second article of the series highlights the ideas and visions of Odile Decq from Studio Decq, Kjetil Thorsen from Snøhetta, Florencia Pita & Jackilin Hah Bloom from Pita & Bloom, an architectural design collaborative based in Los Angeles, and Jeffrey Kipnis, an American architectural critic and theorist.
Check the second selection, watch the interviews and answer the 4 "simple" questions below. The most compelling responses will be published in a special editorial, at the end of the series of video-articles for "What is Architecture?"
“It’s a discipline which helps people to live.”
Odile Decq/ Luxembourg, 2015
“Architecture makes people aware of themselves in the world.”
Kjetil Thorsen, Snøhetta/ Innsbruck, 2013
“Architecture is the design of things. It’s not confined to buildings or projects.”
Florencia Pita & Jackilin Hah Bloom, PITA & BLOOM/ Los Angeles, 2018
“It’s a success!”
Jeffrey Kipnis/ Innsbruck, 2013
Filmed as a single shot with minimal editing, the monologues “provide clear and concise information about architecture from the viewpoints of the contemporary protagonists”. Always asking the same questions, the conversations provide an array of ideas that form today’s architectural thinking. Starting off in 2013, the series has accumulated so far 90 different positions, from all over the world including the ideas of Ben van Berkel, Peter Cook, Wolf Prix, Odile Decq, Yona Friedman, Patrik Schumacher, Kjetil Thorsen - Snøhetta, Ma Yansong, and many more.
