Steven Holl quotes #1

I’m currently reading Phenomena and Idea by Steven Holl. It’s an article that introduces an exhibition with his works at the Museum of Architecture in Stockholm. As I’m reading it, I will drop quotes that I like here. Here’s the first:

In each project we begin with information and disorder, confusion of purpose, program ambiguity, an infinity of materials and forms. All of these elements, like obfuscating smoke, swirl in a nervous atmosphere. Architecture is a result of acting on this indeterminacy.

To open architecture to questions of perception, we must suspend disbelief, disengage the rational half of the mind, and simply play and explore. Reason and skepticism must yield to a horizon of discovery. Doctrines cannot be trusted in this laboratory. Intuition is our muse. The creative spirit must be followed with happy abandon. A time of research precedes synthesis.