Everything Is (Not) Architecture: Environmental Design and Architecture’s Slippery Slope

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Everything Is (Not) Architecture: Environmental Design and Architecture’s Slippery Slope
Bürohochhaus, Shenzhen, China, 2008-2016. Image © Hans Hollein & Partner ZT GesmbH Bürohochhaus, Shenzhen, China, 2008-2016. Image © Hans Hollein & Partner ZT GesmbH

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

There’s no shortage of slippery slopes in the architectural lexicon: “architectural” and “architectonic” hover near the top of the list. Problems invariably arise when the modifier supplants the modified. This happens more than you’d think, especially of late. A wholly separate issue arises when owing partly to a linguistic slight of tongue, architecture is understood as something distinct from the building, eschewing physical inhabitation. 

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