Form Survey

What is formalism to you?

Formalism is something incredibly dry and rigid, like a dinner party where everyone is trying to impress one another. –Anon.

Formalism relies on the interaction, distortion, or relationship of compositional elements (lines, shapes, typologies) to gain meaning. –Charles Kane

A mode of revealing, or bringing forth. –Daniel Glick-Unterman

A bloated word that hints at shape, volume, and meaning in architecture. –Anna Meloyan

What is your favorite building and why?

Kahn’s Salk Institute. It ends a continent. – Anon.

I don’t believe in favorites. –Dante Furioso

Is form important? Why or why not?

As architects we must always take care of form. It’s not a question of importance, but a necessity. –Daniel Glick-Unterman

Yes. Architecture is a language, and form is the lexicon. –Bob Blabla

Probably not. Form doesn’t say whether a space works or not. –Maddy Sembler

Form interests me to the extent that it facilitates the development of an idea. –Charles Kane

Form is visible, it’s undeniably important. –Anon.

Should graphic representation of form be honest?

I think you should be asking what honesty is in the first place. –Anon.

Anything said to be “honest” in architectural form or representation is inherently an overdetermined statement. It cannot – it always has disparity. –Anna Meloyan

No. A drawing is not a building. There’s no experiencing the two mutually. –Maddy Sembler

Drawings don’t lie. Architects lie. –Daniel Glick-Unterman

Who do you think of when you think of formalism?

Peter Eisenman and his Eisenbros, but that’s not what it should be. –Bob Blabla

Formalism suggests an avoidance of the conceptual and the social. It makes me think of an apolitical and empty approach to architecture. –Dante Furioso

Eisenman? and Object Oriented Ontology, strangely, because they don’t get along. They should get along! –Anna Meloyan

Is form a requisite to architecture? Yes or No?

Is a serving dish requisite to eating food? –Sam King

No, but a requisite for its deployment. –Anon.

Absolutely, it’s all about space. –Anon.