Monday, November 8, 2010

Is Architecture Art?

Architecture is the art of building. Architecture relates human requirements and construction materials in a bid to furnish practical use as well as an aesthetic solution. Architecture, according to Richard Meier, is the greatest of the arts, and it encompasses thinking that other arts don’t even deal with. He further elaborates, "Like relationship of the work to the individual human being – the person who uses it; the person who experiences it; the person who sees it; and how that person perceives that space. You know there’s an old adage that a sculptor can make a square wheel, and an architect has to make a round one".

However, according to Richard Meier, to be a work of architecture is creating a work of art. He says, "Well I don’t say all buildings are architecture, first of all. So there’s lots of buildings that have nothing to do with architecture. They have to do with economics. They have to do with an enclosure, but I wouldn’t consider them works of architecture".