Expression vs. Performance: Judging Architecture and Architects

Expression vs. Performance: Judging Architecture and Architects

Pablo Picasso is credited with the quote “Art is the lie that tells the truth”. This has its corollary in  architecture: there is a difference between expression (the “lie”) and function (the “truth”). Architecture is the expression of the thing, not the thing itself.  Even the famous credo, “Form Follows Function” was really only a call to arms to make function the expression.

Frozen Music?

Frozen Music?

Recently I saw an article discussing some excellent architectural work by a few promising architectural practices with the complementary descriptor of the work as “Frozen Music”. I have heard this same term attached to Disney Hall, a way of thinking about the design I...