Martin Filler
Martin Filler
Martin Myles Filleris a prominent American architecture critic. He is best known for his long essays on modern architecture that have appeared in The New York Review of Books since 1985, and which served as the basis for his 2007 book Makers of Modern Architecture, published by New York Review Books...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth17 September 1948
CountryUnited States of America
imagination avant-garde natural-elements
Experimental architecture by its very nature is more prone to the depredations of time and natural elements than buildings made from conventional materials through traditional methods. Avant-garde architects often simply do not know how the products of their imagination will perform when implemented, especially if untested components are involved.
cities doe purpose
Elevated locations imply elevated purposes, even in American cities departing as radically as Los Angeles does from the traditional planning patterns of the Eastern Seaboard.
school technology engineering
During the nineteenth century, the rapid emergence and proliferation of new manufacturing methods and building technologies led to the establishment of polytechnic schools that concentrated on the practicalities of engineering and construction rather than the niceties of stylistic correctness or adherence to established precedent.
jobs ideas income
During the modern period, the vanguard architect has usually relied on small residential jobs both to supply a steady income and to serve as 'sketches' for ideas that are often later translated to the larger scale of public commissions.
art loner force-of-will
Despite the persistent image of the architect as a heroic loner erecting monumental edifices through sheer force of will, the building art has always been a highly cooperative enterprise.
design quality cost
Cost overruns are not uncommon in architecture, particularly for designs that depart from structural or technological norms, or demand a finer quality of execution than commercial schemes - conditions typical of buildings for cultural institutions. Budgets are exceeded for many reasons, not all of them within an architect's control.
design firsts architecture
Considering my specialization in architecture, I'm not surprised that the first graphic novel to thoroughly engage, not to say captivate, me is Chip Kidd and Dave Taylor's 'Batman: Death by Design.'
war machines world
Before World War II, Modernist architects sometimes had to resort to custom fabrication or outright fakery to achieve the machine imagery advocated by the Bauhaus after its initial, Expressionist, phase. Stucco masqueraded as reinforced concrete; rivets were used for decoration.
twenties architecture apprenticeship
Before the professionalization of architecture in the nineteenth century, it was standard for an aspiring mason or carpenter to begin his apprenticeship at fourteen and to become a master builder by his early twenties.
challenges littles building
There can be little question that the tall building presents one of the most difficult challenges to the architect.
survival variables taste
High among the unpredictable variables that endanger the survival of worthy buildings are the vagaries of taste.
practice lasts architecture
Architecture was the last of the major professions to devise a formal 'cursus honorum' before its practice could be undertaken.
architecture weak hearted
Architecture is not a profession for the faint-hearted, the weak-willed, or the short-lived.
decision design might
Any set of decisions about design is inevitably influenced by cultural prejudice, no matter how intent an architect might be to avoid it.