Archinect
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For the pleasure of sharing ideas, through the poetry of the printed word

I. got print?

Between Corb and Rem there seems to be the expectation that architects can write, or want to write. Is anybody else writing an architectural treatise, putting together a monograph, or contributing to a collection of essays?

What subject?

How many words/pages?

Who's the publishing?

Got editors? Got agents?

Getting $$$$ or doing this as just a gratification of your ego?

Any fetish inducing process color, full bleed, text design, fancy paper, die cuts or ways to create a collectors item?



II. Stylistic folies

I never took a 'writing' course in all my years of higher education. Just lots of architecture and landscape theory, history, and seminars that required term papers and the ilk - some of them with great professors who had published lots. Rarely did those profesors comment on stylistic issues. It was the content and ideas that they graded us on, not our writing style.

So I'm in the home stretch of taking my thesis from UPenn (two years later) and modifying it text into an essay for an upcoming book on LA. Since there has been minimal input from my editor, I've been struggling with the intended audience and style. The task has been to pull what was once a highly technical bit with lots of citations of statistics and historical sources, into an captivating story about a place. My biggest issue has been run on sentences, like this one that contains lots of descriptive language and qualifiers, long technical names and legal terms like 'California Environmental Quality Act, that could easily be abbreviated (but who remembers abbreviations) and defy editing into shorter strings of words. I'm very verbose, but is this a sin that will doom my dreams for a best seller on every archistudents bookshelf?

Is there any writing guides like Strunk and White that you use in your architectural writings? Its not like our jargon and infatuation with inventing words makes us easy to read by folks outside of our professional battlements. Or is obfuscation the goal?

Any architecture texts that can be held up as well written?


III.
So lets discuss writing, getting stuff published, style and words...





 
Jun 24, 07 10:11 pm

My predominate stlye is 'letter writing' style. Honest, easy and personal.

What I'd like to do more of is 'fictitious historical dialogue'.

As of yesterday, reading Duboy (again) along with ongoing Montesquieu and spotty Foucault--bricolage plus letters plus Las Meninas etc. Mix that with 'fictitious historical dialogue' and you have my next book project.

It's a book about all kinds of style. The working title is über œuvred e suicidal. Piranesi hires a Quaker lawyer to fix historical inaccuracies while the Quaker lawyer hires Piranesi to design an historically accurate house. Neither knew of the other's true propensity--playful double-making meets good-natured honesty--yet they discover themselves to be a formidable team. You'll think you're laughing and you'll laugh about thinking.

It will be written and composed via Microsoft Word, lots of control-c and control-v and ultimately pdf.

Jun 25, 07 10:36 am  · 
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if i may chime in.
most academic papers and prof. writings i can't read. it makes me feel cloustrophobic, like i want to jump out from the article and run away.
but if it is good and once you pass that set up stage patiently, it starts to open up and once you start to see the level of reason in them, they become addictive. still not for me though.

imo, if you want to bring style into the writing, you have to take risks, tell the truth of your heart and set things in motion, slow or fast, your choice...

just a tid bit for now.. interesting thread.

Jun 25, 07 1:01 pm  · 
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thanks O!

hmm- has sans aspiration been changing usernames? a few threads ago, they seemed to be 'über œuvred e suicidal'- and before that something else... so will you please help jog my failing memory?



one of my favorite passages from the soon to be published Infrastructure of the Void:

The California of 20th century sprawl and rampant development is missing from Owens Valley. When you cross the town limits and pass through the adjacent Indian reservations crowded with billboard, you are immediately back in a rural landscape. The 20th century armature of infrastructure holds together the sage scrub of the valley floor with its scattered farms and rangeland; while up on the mountainsides are the scars of the mining and failed prospecting. The scenic drama of the adjacent mountains and deserts supports the valley’s tourism economy - one that would not have existed without the preservation of open space by the Los Angeles Aqueduct. There are no outlaying truck stops that adorn the interstate throughout America, no checkerboard housing developments, or other sprawl in the valley. There is only infrastructure, open space, and history.

This apparent 19th century relic landscape is in stark contrast to the other side of the mountains in the San Joaquin Valley and the Fresno metropolitan area. On that side of the mountains, the once verdant wetlands and sloughs that were drained to be the nations vegetable garden have rapidly been bulldozed for tract housing and commercial strips. That other side of the mountains, only separated by a 20-mile gap in the roads in Sequoia National Park, lays one of the most rapidly urbanizing regions in the country, yet the Owens Valley is worlds away.



Jun 25, 07 9:54 pm  · 
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won and done williams

this is a great thread. hope it gets more participation.

i got my undergraduate degree in english. i learned to write before i could design. the transition to architecture, and particularly architectural theory with its butchering of the language, was difficult. the first architectural writers i began to appreciate were the postmodernists: jencks and venturi. their gift for writing probably set me back design-wise a good few years. they present their ideas very clearly; and in fact, language became integral to design.

despite some background in comparative literature, it wasn't until i had a very good architectural theory professor spoon feed my hegel, heidegger, derrida, etc. that any continental literary theory made any sense to me, but once i could see the history/evolution of the line of thought and how it had been appropriated by architecture could i see its worth.

interesting you're writing on LA. one of my favorite architectural historians/observers is rayner banham. his prose are precise, thoughtful, yet full of life and humor.

guess this post was sort of all over the map, a few random thoughts on the topic.

Jun 25, 07 10:26 pm  · 
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barry congratulations on the opportunity. I'm supposed to be writing a paper to be presented on a MoMA exhibition on modernism in the Caribbean.

I haven't started writing, yet.

I think it is the curse of the architect to want to paint a full picture of things we are writing. It is the nature of the profession.

I was lucky enough to have a art/writer as a lecturer in grad school, whose advice was simple. Write it, then write it again - the second time trying to write through memory only the essence of the first

Jun 25, 07 10:31 pm  · 
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myriam

that's funny, techno, i always write better in the first pass. i think it has to do with whether you're a better verbalizer or a better writer--i'm a much, much better verbalizer, whereas when i actually sit down to deface the blank page i do markedly worse. it's one reason i actually write decently clearly on this webpage--because the form is a conversation rather than thoughtfully crafted paragraphs.

a good friend of mine and i used to say that architecture is communication.

Jun 25, 07 10:51 pm  · 
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won and done williams

myriam, he must have been a postmodernist;)

Jun 25, 07 10:52 pm  · 
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myriam

ha ha ha, far from it...

Jun 25, 07 10:53 pm  · 
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great sagely advice. I more or less did that with my thesis to reach what is shared above. But I did cut-n-paste the facts, since I like being anally precise with my numbers - if I'm going to discuss a towns population in 1914, I'd rather say 7,243 people (and cite the US census) then say seven thousand people with no citation. guess I don't want my house of cards to fall down with the proper mortar holding the ideas together. Well the editor hasn't commented on my obsession with long footnotes, so until I see the final galleys they seem to be in.

Jun 25, 07 10:54 pm  · 
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I agree with archi, the art of writing is really the art of re-writing. Seeing a good paper come together is as exciting as building a good model for me, it is a design process.

My last four jobs involved writing/editing, all from an architectural point of view. my style is crouching squirrel.

An English major turned architect friend says that there are no good architectural writers (stylistically). I do not completely agree with that, but then again I ain't never was an English major.

I think that one of the problems is that a lot of the texts we read are translated, and what sounds right in Italian, German, or French just does not translate well into English. For example, reading Heidgger can give me a headache quickly. A friend and I concluded that he does not want you to understand the writing but rather experience as if it was phenomena. Tafuri can also be very difficult. I have enjoyed reading Bernard Rudofsky, Venturi-Scott Brown, Christian Norberg Schulz, Michael Sorkin, and a few others whose names escape me now.

Jun 26, 07 6:55 am  · 
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Look, "When in Rome..."

Subject: Re: A trivial day
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999

At around 9:59 am this morning, I was sitting next to my brother in the waiting room of a doctor's office, waiting for one of Otto's regular doctor visits. Since the days in 1994 when I used to take our Dad to therapy after he lost his first leg, I always take a clipboard and pad of paper with me whenever I have to go a doctor's office (which is a lot!). Anyway, I always write notes, and I always date them. So today I started by writing 11.19.99, and I said to Otto, "look, today's one one one nine nine nine." It didn't seem to impress him.

I've been writing all day, actually. I have to finish up a paper I'll be presenting in Brussels, Belgium next week (Thanksgiving Day, which, in case you don't know, comes after Ax Wednesday). The paper is on Piranesi's Campo Marzio, and today I've been writing the section entitled "love and war." Here's my favorite paragraph:

Atop the bluffs along the south bank of the Petronia Amnis, Piranesi situates a series garden villas among a scattering of other building types. The planning of the villas individually is orderly, if not also symmetrical, yet, in relation to one another, the grouping of the villas appears completely disorganized. Once the names of the various buildings is understood, however, a distinctive pattern develops. The first and largest villa is the Horti Lucullani, the Gardens of L. Licinius Lucullus, which, in 46 AD "belonged to Valerius Asiaticus, but were coveted by Messalina, who compelled the owner to commit suicide." Messalena was the nymphomaniac wife of the emperor Claudius. Next to the Horti Lucullani is the plain and simple Horti Narcissi; Narcissus was the name of the freedman of Claudius by whose orders Messalena was put to death. Next to the Horti Narcissi is the triangular Horti Anteri. There was no real garden of Anteri in ancient Rome, but there was such a thing as an anteros, which is an avenger of slighted love, or, in this case, love triangles. Then there is a bath complex in honor of Venus, the love goddess herself, and then a nympheum named for Tiberius, an emperor known for his fondness of pornography. And, at the edge of the Ichnographia, there is the Viridarium Lucii Cornificii, a pleasure garden with two building extensions clearly phallic in plan. Finally, among these structures of love and lust are two Turres expugnandae, military defense towers whose plans no doubt represent substantial erections.



ps
I watched Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters for the first time last night. I had no idea one of the minor characters was going to be an architect with a schizophrenic wife.

pss
There's now sans aspirations, posthumously yours, dead and buried, and, of course, me. But who knows for how long.


Jun 26, 07 10:00 am  · 
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I love being inspired, thus the new working title of my next book project is The Faux Failing Memory.

The interesting thing about the written word is that you can almost always tell when the author isn't being completely honest. At least I can.

Jun 26, 07 11:55 am  · 
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how? seems like a good skill to have in archinect ;)

Jun 26, 07 11:57 am  · 
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Perhaps at first it's instinctual, and then, as one learns to trust one's instincts, it becomes a skill. That's at least the reader's part. The writer gives off clues within their style. Citing "failing memory" is often such a clue.

Quilian, you're not suggesting that people at archinect aren't always being completely honest are you?!? Such a prick would surely burst the (hot air?) balloon.

Jun 26, 07 1:33 pm  · 
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vado retro

what is less honest than memory?

Jun 26, 07 1:37 pm  · 
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curt clay

i once told a professor I wanted to turn this paper into a book and he asked, "Are you writing for you? Or are you writing for posterity?"

What he was getting at was, writing for one's self is selfish, whereas writing to contribute an idea to humanity is selfless.... opens you up to more criticism of course, but if people criticize, then essentially, the initial ideas you put forward can serve as a basis for an idea that might be hashed out by others...

so my advice to writers is always write selflessly....

Jun 26, 07 1:48 pm  · 
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A plain old lie is for sure less honest than memory. Memories are mental reenactments, and, for sure, a reenactment can never be the original. Those are givens.

Yes, one can certainly tell an unwitting falsehood, and that's usually due to not knowing all pertinent information, or some such circumstance. Whereas to actually tell a lie means that indeed the liar does know the honest truth, but chooses not to express it. In which case the memory is indeed truthful, although the expression of the memory isn't truthful.

How exactly does one write selfishly? Is that like writing notes to oneself? I suspect the professor was afraid the student might just gain notoriety before the professor, thence the calculated warning.

Jun 26, 07 2:29 pm  · 
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vado retro

i was being poetic in the manner of "to live outside the law, you must be honest"

Jun 26, 07 2:42 pm  · 
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Well, that doesn't negate the fact that did indeed ask a question.

I think my favorite poem is...

so the question, so the answer

...honest.

Jun 26, 07 2:58 pm  · 
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...that you did indeed...

Jun 26, 07 3:00 pm  · 
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i also think being honest is not a build in requirement for writing. there are a lot of beauties out there that has nothing to do with honesty but other truths, such as your plot.

Jun 26, 07 3:21 pm  · 
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vado retro

the truth is over rated and underappreciated.

Jun 26, 07 3:28 pm  · 
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Ah yes, other truths.

Jun 26, 07 3:39 pm  · 
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really, afterall, i now think it is best to stay away from honesty, truth and other paraphernalia. look what happened to bible.

Jun 26, 07 3:51 pm  · 
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Orhan, I know what you mean.

Jun 26, 07 3:59 pm  · 
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über-

you're making me wish I hadn't slept through roman architecture in history... pornography, nymphomania, suicide - wow, those garden villas are potent.


Ok, now I'm thinking that über œuvred e suicidal and sans aspirations are alternate accounts of the same archinecteur- do I dare ask for confirmation of this hunch?

Jun 26, 07 8:58 pm  · 
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barry/treekiller, since this thread is about architectural writing, it is worthwhile noting that Piranesi, within the Ichnographia Campi Martii, utilized plans, plan positionings and Latin labels to create a readable text. This is rare, if not unique, within the realm of architectural writing. You can read the full 'love and war' story here.

You may not have slept through roman architecture class. Perhaps your memory fails you more than you know.

The following statement is a lie: I have only one archinect registration account.

Jun 26, 07 9:28 pm  · 
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"to live outside the law, you must be honest"

- where's that from, vado? I like that.

Jun 26, 07 9:39 pm  · 
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Jun 26, 07 9:45 pm  · 
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won and done williams

in the name of clarity, i, like piranesi once did, have lately taken to labeling all of our plans in latin. since the switch, our office has seen a marked rise in rfis.

Jun 26, 07 9:47 pm  · 
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Jun 26, 07 9:51 pm  · 
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Piranesi's favorite.

Jun 26, 07 9:58 pm  · 
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Got the major edits and rewrites done - yeay! now I get to sit back till my editor takes another look and tells me what else needs work.



its very different to write a piece for a book then to write a term paper. then blogging and archinecting don't really prepare you for either.

Jun 29, 07 9:56 pm  · 
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Infrastructural City. Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles

book launch @ Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, March 6th, 2008

Jan 20, 08 11:50 am  · 
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