in praise of doubt
Today, working with doubt is unavoidable; the absolut is suspended by the relative and the interactive. Instead of stable systems we must work with dynamic systems. Instead of simple and clear programs we engage contingent and diverse programs. Instead of precision and perfection we work with intermittent, crossbred systems, and combined methods. Suspending disbelief and adopting global understanding is today an a priori condition, a new fundamental for creative work in science, urbanism, and architecture. Working with doubt becomes an open position for concentrated intellectual work.
The research and preparation required for any integrated urban success is quite different from previous periods that imposed classical styles or sought to fulfill the absolute aim of modernist functional clarity. We aim for a twenty-first century architecture in contrast to the empirical kitsch of the post-modern. We aim for an architecture that is integral: landscape/architecture/urbanism, an architecture of deep connections to site, culture, and climate, rather then an applied signature style. Working with openness and doubt at the outset of each project can yield works engaged on levels of both site and culture: many different urbanisms, rather than a single urbanism.
- Steven Holl, Urbanisms: working with doubt
Стивен Холл построил дом, ради которого я когда-нибудь все-таки выберусь на край земли.