gropius quotes
from my job, which is essentially rummaging around campus architecture & planning files. names i come across like it's no big deal: piano (they call him renzo here, at least on the phone), venturi, koolhaas, moshe safdie, rafael moneo, among others.
"I was lucky, and I say lucky, to have an idea early in my life. I am lucky that I have lived long enough to see this idea accepted. I cannot understand that anyone can be bored with life. Every day is full of enjoyment for me. But remember, that things come easier for me now that I have been generally accepted. When I think back on the Bauhaus days, I am appalled by the enormous difficulties and fights. You can't imagine how that was. I would not have the courage to go through that again, if I knew in advance what would happen." -- conversation in Cambridge @ 85
"is it not apparent that the designer needs an inexaustable source of stimulation in his search for the display of the grand and the beautiful? where is such a source? creative imagination seems to gain strength from moral devotion. The artist anticipating the future, finds inspiration from new social ideas for the betterment of human environment and for a more highly integrated community. Understanding the social necessities of civilized life, is evidently the most desirable condition for good design. Thus, he needs to be bold. He must see his problems big, for good design embraces all of life....And, good design is not only a mental affair, it must be fired by emotion, to stir the heart." -- MOMA 1947
(i hear ya, walt!)
"unity in diversity"
"there is no past which we should long to resurrect,
there is eternal newness only, reconstituting itself
out of the extended elements of the past
and true yearning should always be towards productive ends
making some new, some better thing." --Goethe quoted by Gropius 1966
"What is architecture? the crystalline expression of man's noblest thoughts, his ardour, his humanity, his faith, his religion? that is what it once was! but who of those living in our age that is cursed with practicality still comprehend its all-embracing, soul-giving nature? we walk through the streets and cities and do not howl with shame at such deserts of ugliness! (actually, didn't Ginsberg do that?) let us be quite clear: these grey, hollow, spiritless mock-ups, in which we live and work, will be shameful evidence for posterity of the spiritual descent into hell of our generation, which forgot that great, unique art: architecture...all our works are nothing but splinters. structures created by practical requirements and necessity do not satisfy the longing for a world of beauty built anew from the bottom up...let us together will, think out, create the new idea of architecture.
but ideas die as soon as they become compromises. hence there must be clear watersheds between dream and reality, between longing for the stars and everyday labour. architects, sculptors, painters, we must all return to the crafts! for there is no 'professional art.' artists are craftsmen in the original sense of the word, and only in rare, blessed moments of revelation that lie outside the power of their will can art blossom unconsciously from the work of their hands. ...there are no architects today, we are all of us merely preparing the way for him who will once again deserve the name of architect, for that means: lord of art, who will build gardens out of deserts and pile up wonders to the sky." --leaflet for the exhibition for unknown architects, berlin 1919
this last part about architecture being a craft is what i've been bitching about all along. (hence abandon the pretense, become a public servant, etc.) since i am not well read in architecture i didn't know gropius came up with it first. he seems to know what he is talking about, more or less.
"I was lucky, and I say lucky, to have an idea early in my life. I am lucky that I have lived long enough to see this idea accepted. I cannot understand that anyone can be bored with life. Every day is full of enjoyment for me. But remember, that things come easier for me now that I have been generally accepted. When I think back on the Bauhaus days, I am appalled by the enormous difficulties and fights. You can't imagine how that was. I would not have the courage to go through that again, if I knew in advance what would happen." -- conversation in Cambridge @ 85
"is it not apparent that the designer needs an inexaustable source of stimulation in his search for the display of the grand and the beautiful? where is such a source? creative imagination seems to gain strength from moral devotion. The artist anticipating the future, finds inspiration from new social ideas for the betterment of human environment and for a more highly integrated community. Understanding the social necessities of civilized life, is evidently the most desirable condition for good design. Thus, he needs to be bold. He must see his problems big, for good design embraces all of life....And, good design is not only a mental affair, it must be fired by emotion, to stir the heart." -- MOMA 1947
(i hear ya, walt!)
"unity in diversity"
"there is no past which we should long to resurrect,
there is eternal newness only, reconstituting itself
out of the extended elements of the past
and true yearning should always be towards productive ends
making some new, some better thing." --Goethe quoted by Gropius 1966
"What is architecture? the crystalline expression of man's noblest thoughts, his ardour, his humanity, his faith, his religion? that is what it once was! but who of those living in our age that is cursed with practicality still comprehend its all-embracing, soul-giving nature? we walk through the streets and cities and do not howl with shame at such deserts of ugliness! (actually, didn't Ginsberg do that?) let us be quite clear: these grey, hollow, spiritless mock-ups, in which we live and work, will be shameful evidence for posterity of the spiritual descent into hell of our generation, which forgot that great, unique art: architecture...all our works are nothing but splinters. structures created by practical requirements and necessity do not satisfy the longing for a world of beauty built anew from the bottom up...let us together will, think out, create the new idea of architecture.
but ideas die as soon as they become compromises. hence there must be clear watersheds between dream and reality, between longing for the stars and everyday labour. architects, sculptors, painters, we must all return to the crafts! for there is no 'professional art.' artists are craftsmen in the original sense of the word, and only in rare, blessed moments of revelation that lie outside the power of their will can art blossom unconsciously from the work of their hands. ...there are no architects today, we are all of us merely preparing the way for him who will once again deserve the name of architect, for that means: lord of art, who will build gardens out of deserts and pile up wonders to the sky." --leaflet for the exhibition for unknown architects, berlin 1919
this last part about architecture being a craft is what i've been bitching about all along. (hence abandon the pretense, become a public servant, etc.) since i am not well read in architecture i didn't know gropius came up with it first. he seems to know what he is talking about, more or less.