We just learned about Pritzger Prize-winner Hans Hollein's passing here.
I worked for him many years ago, during a summer when Vienna was home for me. It was a grungy office, but everyone there was super smart, with all the requisite design talent, and we were all multilingual as well. (We had five different words for "shit" in the room I worked in.) I worked on the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art, as well as Hollein's competition entry for the Walt Disney concert hall in Los Angeles, which of course was won by Frank Gehry.
While I'm certainly not in love with everything Herr Professor (as he was referred to) Hollein did, his comment that "Everything is Architecture" has stuck with me. Stacy and I have never just designed one thing. Whether it's a garden, or a building, or a drawer pull, or a cabinet, or an urn for a loved one's remains, or a stereo speaker, or a table, or a restaurant, or a serving tray, or your office, or your home, it's all architecture on some level. We can put the same amount of rigor into designing any of them. Each piece is part of the fabric of our environment, and each contributes to it in some way, so each piece deserves our consideration. We like that attitude. Sometimes it fits between your fingers and sometimes it's all around you, with awe-inspiring scale. But it's all architecture.
I worked for him many years ago, during a summer when Vienna was home for me. It was a grungy office, but everyone there was super smart, with all the requisite design talent, and we were all multilingual as well. (We had five different words for "shit" in the room I worked in.) I worked on the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art, as well as Hollein's competition entry for the Walt Disney concert hall in Los Angeles, which of course was won by Frank Gehry.
While I'm certainly not in love with everything Herr Professor (as he was referred to) Hollein did, his comment that "Everything is Architecture" has stuck with me. Stacy and I have never just designed one thing. Whether it's a garden, or a building, or a drawer pull, or a cabinet, or an urn for a loved one's remains, or a stereo speaker, or a table, or a restaurant, or a serving tray, or your office, or your home, it's all architecture on some level. We can put the same amount of rigor into designing any of them. Each piece is part of the fabric of our environment, and each contributes to it in some way, so each piece deserves our consideration. We like that attitude. Sometimes it fits between your fingers and sometimes it's all around you, with awe-inspiring scale. But it's all architecture.
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