Porphyrios Studio

DEMETRI PORPHYRIOS with GEORGE KNIGHT

Our buildings and cities today facilitate—one may even say idolize—the commodification of experience, the erosion of local identity, traditions, character and the dwindling of the métier of building. Through the control of architectural education, Modernism has shattered continuity in education, training and building production in favour of a search for permanent innovation and novelty.

In our professional practice and in school, we emphasize the indispensable design and educational value that precedent brings to architecture, urban design, and the cultivation of tectonic culture. Architecture, buildings, and the city have a key role to play in creating the conditions for people to live rich and fulfilled lives. Architecture does not convince by its rhetoric, it does not entice with sweetness and style, architecture only stands by the humanism it promises.