SLIPPERY WHEN WET: THE CORPORATE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE

摘要

Architects are notorious for obscuring their work with words: notions about a sequence of spaces or the legibility of plans can make it difficult for lay people to penetrate the discourse. It is often said that architects just can't write. Counterposing the mindset of a designer to that of a writer is a well-established idea. In Words and Buildings (2000), the definitive study of architecture and writing, Adrian Forty explains the fashionable Modernist idea that every art form offers a unique experience that cannot be replicated in another medium. Or to put it more directly, 'Build - don't talk', as Forty quotes Mies van der Rohe.