Horror Vacui: The Fear Of Emptiness

Is a fear of empty space driving architecture and urban design today?

1 minute read

May 13, 2004, 1:00 PM PDT

As Muschamp rightly perceives, the horror vacui is especially pronounced among architects. Many, like my young drafter, think that if they don't fill up every space with an avalanche of ideas and images, however unrelated, they've somehow fallen short of their creative charge. In fact, just the opposite is true. Architecture is a process of reduction, not just compilation. Ideally, the architect distills a complex set of requirements into the simplest form that will satisfy the client's needs and offer some measure of personal artistic grace... more often than we'd like to think, the best designing we can do is none at all.

Thanks to ArchNewsNow

FULL STORY: Enough is ... enough

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 in The San Francisco Chronicle

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