WEBVTT

00:00:01.828 --> 00:00:03.448
Today I'm going to speak to you

00:00:03.472 --> 00:00:06.502
about the last 30 years
of architectural history.

00:00:07.685 --> 00:00:10.143
That's a lot to pack into 18 minutes.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:10.167 --> 00:00:11.854
It's a complex topic,

00:00:11.878 --> 00:00:16.252
so we're just going to dive right in
at a complex place:

00:00:16.276 --> 00:00:17.482
New Jersey.

00:00:17.506 --> 00:00:20.696
Because 30 years ago, I'm from Jersey,

00:00:20.720 --> 00:00:24.562
and I was six, and I lived there
in my parents' house

00:00:24.586 --> 00:00:26.210
in a town called Livingston,

00:00:26.234 --> 00:00:29.165
and this was my childhood bedroom.

00:00:29.689 --> 00:00:32.124
Around the corner from my bedroom

00:00:32.148 --> 00:00:35.010
was the bathroom
that I used to share with my sister.

00:00:35.225 --> 00:00:38.138
And in between my bedroom and the bathroom

00:00:38.162 --> 00:00:40.963
was a balcony that overlooked
the family room.

00:00:41.413 --> 00:00:45.095
And that's where everyone
would hang out and watch TV,

00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:49.282
so that every time that I walked
from my bedroom to the bathroom,

00:00:49.306 --> 00:00:50.642
everyone would see me,

00:00:50.666 --> 00:00:54.420
and every time I took a shower
and would come back in a towel,

00:00:54.444 --> 00:00:55.821
everyone would see me.

00:00:56.162 --> 00:00:57.543
And I looked like this.

00:00:58.718 --> 00:01:01.741
I was awkward,

00:01:01.765 --> 00:01:03.856
insecure, and I hated it.

00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:06.919
I hated that walk, I hated that balcony,

00:01:06.943 --> 00:01:09.967
I hated that room, and I hated that house.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:10.769 --> 00:01:12.457
And that's architecture.

00:01:12.917 --> 00:01:14.234
(Laughter)

00:01:14.258 --> 00:01:15.576
Done.

00:01:16.088 --> 00:01:19.462
That feeling, those emotions that I felt,

00:01:19.486 --> 00:01:22.179
that's the power of architecture,

00:01:22.203 --> 00:01:25.741
because architecture is not about math
and it's not about zoning,

00:01:25.765 --> 00:01:29.123
it's about those visceral,
emotional connections

00:01:29.147 --> 00:01:31.903
that we feel to the places that we occupy.

00:01:32.653 --> 00:01:35.529
And it's no surprise
that we feel that way,

00:01:35.553 --> 00:01:37.761
because according to the EPA,

00:01:37.785 --> 00:01:42.404
Americans spend 90 percent
of their time indoors.

00:01:42.428 --> 00:01:47.164
That's 90 percent of our time
surrounded by architecture.

00:01:47.188 --> 00:01:48.696
That's huge.

00:01:48.720 --> 00:01:53.213
That means that architecture is shaping us
in ways that we didn't even realize.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:53.922 --> 00:01:59.296
That makes us a little bit gullible
and very, very predictable.

00:01:59.464 --> 00:02:02.093
It means that when I show you
a building like this,

00:02:02.117 --> 00:02:03.499
I know what you think:

00:02:03.523 --> 00:02:06.870
You think "power"
and "stability" and "democracy."

00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:10.872
And I know you think that
because it's based on a building

00:02:10.896 --> 00:02:13.690
that was build 2,500 years ago
by the Greeks.

00:02:14.272 --> 00:02:15.594
This is a trick.

00:02:15.912 --> 00:02:18.080
This is a trigger that architects use

00:02:18.104 --> 00:02:21.993
to get you to create
an emotional connection

00:02:22.017 --> 00:02:24.658
to the forms that we build
our buildings out of.

00:02:25.237 --> 00:02:27.877
It's a predictable emotional connection,

00:02:27.901 --> 00:02:31.121
and we've been using this trick
for a long, long time.

00:02:31.629 --> 00:02:34.902
We used it [200] years ago to build banks.

00:02:34.926 --> 00:02:38.083
We used it in the 19th century
to build art museums.

00:02:38.107 --> 00:02:40.312
And in the 20th century in America,

00:02:40.336 --> 00:02:42.171
we used it to build houses.

00:02:42.195 --> 00:02:44.933
And look at these solid,
stable little soldiers

00:02:44.957 --> 00:02:47.528
facing the ocean
and keeping away the elements.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:48.265 --> 00:02:50.900
This is really, really useful,

00:02:50.924 --> 00:02:53.911
because building things is terrifying.

00:02:54.331 --> 00:02:58.467
It's expensive, it takes a long time,
and it's very complicated.

00:02:58.996 --> 00:03:01.154
And the people that build things --

00:03:01.178 --> 00:03:03.383
developers and governments --

00:03:03.407 --> 00:03:06.260
they're naturally afraid of innovation,

00:03:06.284 --> 00:03:10.264
and they'd rather just use those forms
that they know you'll respond to.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:11.125 --> 00:03:13.314
That's how we end up
with buildings like this.

00:03:14.096 --> 00:03:15.766
This is a nice building.

00:03:15.790 --> 00:03:18.081
This is the Livingston Public Library

00:03:18.105 --> 00:03:21.215
that was completed in 2004 in my hometown,

00:03:21.239 --> 00:03:22.864
and, you know, it's got a dome

00:03:22.888 --> 00:03:26.495
and it's got this round thing 
and columns, red brick,

00:03:26.495 --> 00:03:31.485
and you can kind of guess what Livingston
is trying to say with this building:

00:03:31.509 --> 00:03:35.035
children, property values and history.

00:03:35.751 --> 00:03:39.286
But it doesn't have much to do
with what a library actually does today.

00:03:40.209 --> 00:03:44.273
That same year, in 2004,
on the other side of the country,

00:03:44.297 --> 00:03:46.292
another library was completed,

00:03:46.316 --> 00:03:47.789
and it looks like this.

00:03:47.998 --> 00:03:49.331
It's in Seattle.

00:03:50.140 --> 00:03:55.694
This library is about how
we consume media in a digital age.

00:03:55.718 --> 00:03:59.288
It's about a new kind
of public amenity for the city,

00:03:59.312 --> 00:04:01.917
a place to gather and read and share.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:03.244 --> 00:04:04.867
So how is it possible

00:04:04.891 --> 00:04:08.304
that in the same year,
in the same country,

00:04:08.328 --> 00:04:10.951
two buildings, both called libraries,

00:04:10.975 --> 00:04:12.607
look so completely different?

00:04:13.576 --> 00:04:19.109
And the answer is that architecture works
on the principle of a pendulum.

00:04:19.501 --> 00:04:22.369
On the one side is innovation,

00:04:22.393 --> 00:04:26.010
and architects are constantly pushing,
pushing for new technologies,

00:04:26.034 --> 00:04:29.716
new typologies, new solutions
for the way that we live today.

00:04:29.886 --> 00:04:32.280
And we push and we push and we push

00:04:32.304 --> 00:04:34.903
until we completely alienate all of you.

00:04:34.927 --> 00:04:37.153
We wear all black, we get very depressed,

00:04:37.177 --> 00:04:39.338
you think we're adorable,

00:04:39.362 --> 00:04:42.821
we're dead inside because
we've got no choice.

00:04:42.845 --> 00:04:44.597
We have to go to the other side

00:04:44.621 --> 00:04:47.736
and reengage those symbols
that we know you love.

00:04:48.394 --> 00:04:50.553
So we do that, and you're happy,

00:04:50.577 --> 00:04:52.387
we feel like sellouts,

00:04:52.411 --> 00:04:54.061
so we start experimenting again

00:04:54.085 --> 00:04:57.279
and we push the pendulum back
and back and forth and back and forth

00:04:57.303 --> 00:04:59.678
we've gone for the last 300 years,

00:04:59.702 --> 00:05:01.815
and certainly for the last 30 years.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:02.926 --> 00:05:06.518
Okay, 30 years ago
we were coming out of the '70s.

00:05:06.542 --> 00:05:10.201
Architects had been busy experimenting
with something called brutalism.

00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:11.765
It's about concrete.

00:05:11.789 --> 00:05:13.261
(Laughter)

00:05:13.285 --> 00:05:14.429
You can guess this.

00:05:14.453 --> 00:05:17.783
Small windows, dehumanizing scale.

00:05:17.807 --> 00:05:20.570
This is really tough stuff.

00:05:20.594 --> 00:05:23.357
So as we get closer to the '80s,

00:05:23.381 --> 00:05:25.724
we start to reengage those symbols.

00:05:25.748 --> 00:05:28.696
We push the pendulum
back into the other direction.

00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:31.529
We take these forms that we know you love

00:05:31.553 --> 00:05:33.118
and we update them.

00:05:33.142 --> 00:05:35.151
We add neon

00:05:35.175 --> 00:05:37.439
and we add pastels

00:05:37.463 --> 00:05:39.117
and we use new materials.

00:05:39.141 --> 00:05:40.579
And you love it.

00:05:40.603 --> 00:05:42.552
And we can't give you enough of it.

00:05:42.576 --> 00:05:44.740
We take Chippendale armoires

00:05:44.764 --> 00:05:47.136
and we turned those into skyscrapers,

00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:51.866
and skyscrapers can be
medieval castles made out of glass.

00:05:52.409 --> 00:05:53.961
Forms got big,

00:05:53.985 --> 00:05:56.512
forms got bold and colorful.

00:05:56.536 --> 00:05:59.380
Dwarves became columns.

00:05:59.404 --> 00:06:00.443
(Laughter)

00:06:00.467 --> 00:06:02.573
Swans grew to the size of buildings.

00:06:02.597 --> 00:06:03.934
It was crazy.

00:06:04.640 --> 00:06:08.513
But it's the '80s, it's cool.

00:06:08.537 --> 00:06:09.715
(Laughter)

00:06:09.739 --> 00:06:11.733
We're all hanging out in malls

00:06:11.757 --> 00:06:14.138
and we're all moving to the suburbs,

00:06:14.162 --> 00:06:16.736
and out there, out in the suburbs,

00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:20.092
we can create our own
architectural fantasies.

00:06:20.116 --> 00:06:21.870
And those fantasies,

00:06:21.894 --> 00:06:23.957
they can be Mediterranean

00:06:23.981 --> 00:06:25.906
or French

00:06:25.930 --> 00:06:27.130
or Italian.

00:06:27.154 --> 00:06:28.797
(Laughter)

00:06:28.821 --> 00:06:30.714
Possibly with endless breadsticks.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:30.738 --> 00:06:32.764
This is the thing about postmodernism.

00:06:32.788 --> 00:06:34.602
This is the thing about symbols.

00:06:34.908 --> 00:06:37.888
They're easy, they're cheap,

00:06:37.912 --> 00:06:40.417
because instead of making places,

00:06:40.441 --> 00:06:42.493
we're making memories of places.

00:06:43.091 --> 00:06:45.947
Because I know, 
and I know all of you know,

00:06:45.971 --> 00:06:47.286
this isn't Tuscany.

00:06:48.182 --> 00:06:49.327
This is Ohio.

00:06:49.452 --> 00:06:50.970
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:50.994 --> 00:06:52.819
So architects get frustrated,

00:06:52.843 --> 00:06:56.174
and we start pushing the pendulum
back into the other direction.

00:06:56.559 --> 00:06:58.786
In the late '80s and early '90s,

00:06:58.810 --> 00:07:02.058
we start experimenting with something
called deconstructivism.

00:07:02.727 --> 00:07:05.473
We throw out historical symbols,

00:07:05.497 --> 00:07:09.343
we rely on new, computer-aided
design techniques,

00:07:09.367 --> 00:07:11.324
and we come up with new compositions,

00:07:11.348 --> 00:07:14.204
forms crashing into forms.

00:07:14.228 --> 00:07:17.251
This is academic and heady stuff,

00:07:17.275 --> 00:07:19.126
it's super unpopular,

00:07:19.150 --> 00:07:20.813
we totally alienate you.

00:07:20.837 --> 00:07:25.024
Ordinarily, the pendulum would just
swing back into the other direction.

00:07:25.048 --> 00:07:27.380
And then, something amazing happened.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:28.331 --> 00:07:31.222
In 1997, this building opened.

00:07:31.898 --> 00:07:34.653
This is the Guggenheim Bilbao,
by Frank Gehry.

00:07:36.228 --> 00:07:37.632
And this building

00:07:37.656 --> 00:07:41.920
fundamentally changes
the world's relationship to architecture.

00:07:42.694 --> 00:07:46.594
Paul Goldberger said that Bilbao
was one of those rare moments

00:07:46.618 --> 00:07:49.921
when critics, academics,
and the general public

00:07:49.945 --> 00:07:52.711
were completely united around a building.

00:07:53.401 --> 00:07:56.462
The New York Times
called this building a miracle.

00:07:57.160 --> 00:08:02.842
Tourism in Bilbao increased 2,500 percent

00:08:02.866 --> 00:08:04.535
after this building was completed.

00:08:04.885 --> 00:08:08.334
So all of a sudden, everybody
wants one of these buildings:

00:08:09.044 --> 00:08:10.383
L.A.,

00:08:11.633 --> 00:08:13.172
Seattle,

00:08:13.196 --> 00:08:14.800
Chicago,

00:08:14.824 --> 00:08:16.528
New York,

00:08:16.552 --> 00:08:18.446
Cleveland,

00:08:18.470 --> 00:08:19.713
Springfield.

00:08:19.737 --> 00:08:20.771
(Laughter)

00:08:20.795 --> 00:08:24.018
Everybody wants one,
and Gehry is everywhere.

00:08:24.042 --> 00:08:27.382
He is our very first starchitect.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:27.989 --> 00:08:32.865
Now, how is it possible
that these forms --

00:08:32.889 --> 00:08:34.794
they're wild and radical --

00:08:34.818 --> 00:08:38.657
how is it possible that they become
so ubiquitous throughout the world?

00:08:39.270 --> 00:08:44.766
And it happened because media
so successfully galvanized around them

00:08:44.790 --> 00:08:50.587
that they quickly taught us
that these forms mean culture and tourism.

00:08:51.068 --> 00:08:54.466
We created an emotional
reaction to these forms.

00:08:54.490 --> 00:08:56.862
So did every mayor in the world.

00:08:56.967 --> 00:08:59.469
So every mayor knew
that if they had these forms,

00:08:59.493 --> 00:09:02.483
they had culture and tourism.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:03.778 --> 00:09:06.110
This phenomenon
at the turn of the new millennium

00:09:06.134 --> 00:09:08.264
happened to a few other starchitects.

00:09:08.288 --> 00:09:10.671
It happened to Zaha

00:09:10.695 --> 00:09:13.094
and it happened to Libeskind,

00:09:13.118 --> 00:09:17.732
and what happened
to these elite few architects

00:09:17.756 --> 00:09:19.512
at the turn of the new millennium

00:09:19.536 --> 00:09:23.213
could actually start to happen
to the entire field of architecture,

00:09:23.237 --> 00:09:26.475
as digital media starts
to increase the speed

00:09:26.499 --> 00:09:28.314
with which we consume information.

00:09:29.096 --> 00:09:32.044
Because think about
how you consume architecture.

00:09:32.429 --> 00:09:33.644
A thousand years ago,

00:09:33.668 --> 00:09:37.488
you would have had to have walked to
the village next door to see a building.

00:09:37.488 --> 00:09:39.118
Transportation speeds up:

00:09:39.142 --> 00:09:42.142
You can take a boat, you can take a plane,
you can be a tourist.

00:09:42.166 --> 00:09:45.063
Technology speeds up:
You can see it in a newspaper, on TV,

00:09:45.087 --> 00:09:49.950
until finally, we are all
architectural photographers,

00:09:49.974 --> 00:09:53.874
and the building has become
disembodied from the site.

00:09:54.768 --> 00:09:58.315
Architecture is everywhere now,

00:09:58.339 --> 00:10:01.453
and that means that
the speed of communication

00:10:01.477 --> 00:10:04.570
has finally caught up
to the speed of architecture.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:05.409 --> 00:10:07.879
Because architecture
actually moves quite quickly.

00:10:07.903 --> 00:10:10.611
It doesn't take long
to think about a building.

00:10:10.635 --> 00:10:12.788
It takes a long time to build a building,

00:10:12.812 --> 00:10:15.106
three or four years,

00:10:15.130 --> 00:10:18.798
and in the interim, an architect
will design two or eight

00:10:18.822 --> 00:10:21.468
or a hundred other buildings

00:10:21.492 --> 00:10:25.183
before they know if that building
that they designed four years ago

00:10:25.207 --> 00:10:27.085
was a success or not.

00:10:27.690 --> 00:10:31.239
That's because there's never been
a good feedback loop in architecture.

00:10:32.416 --> 00:10:35.308
That's how we end up
with buildings like this.

00:10:35.332 --> 00:10:38.272
Brutalism wasn't a two-year movement,

00:10:38.296 --> 00:10:40.167
it was a 20-year movement.

00:10:40.383 --> 00:10:44.201
For 20 years, we were producing
buildings like this

00:10:44.225 --> 00:10:47.093
because we had no idea
how much you hated it.

00:10:48.284 --> 00:10:51.084
It's never going to happen again,

00:10:51.108 --> 00:10:53.238
I think,

00:10:53.262 --> 00:10:59.362
because we are living on the verge
of the greatest revolution in architecture

00:10:59.386 --> 00:11:01.755
since the invention of concrete,

00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:04.233
of steel, or of the elevator,

00:11:04.257 --> 00:11:05.939
and it's a media revolution.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:07.072 --> 00:11:11.732
So my theory is that when
you apply media to this pendulum,

00:11:11.756 --> 00:11:14.617
it starts swinging faster and faster,

00:11:14.641 --> 00:11:18.379
until it's at both extremes
nearly simultaneously,

00:11:18.403 --> 00:11:23.371
and that effectively blurs the difference
between innovation and symbol,

00:11:23.395 --> 00:11:26.770
between us, the architects,
and you, the public.

00:11:27.342 --> 00:11:33.402
Now we can make nearly instantaneous,
emotionally charged symbols

00:11:33.426 --> 00:11:35.115
out of something that's brand new.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:36.453 --> 00:11:38.186
Let me show you how this plays out

00:11:38.210 --> 00:11:40.376
in a project that my firm
recently completed.

00:11:40.829 --> 00:11:44.304
We were hired to replace this building,
which burned down.

00:11:44.304 --> 00:11:46.773
This is the center of a town
called the Pines

00:11:46.797 --> 00:11:48.543
in Fire Island in New York State.

00:11:48.567 --> 00:11:49.980
It's a vacation community.

00:11:50.729 --> 00:11:54.482
We proposed a building that was audacious,

00:11:54.506 --> 00:11:58.157
that was different than any of the forms
that the community was used to,

00:11:58.181 --> 00:12:02.702
and we were scared
and our client was scared

00:12:02.726 --> 00:12:04.489
and the community was scared,

00:12:04.513 --> 00:12:08.669
so we created a series
of photorealistic renderings

00:12:08.693 --> 00:12:10.071
that we put onto Facebook

00:12:10.095 --> 00:12:12.221
and we put onto Instagram,

00:12:12.245 --> 00:12:14.566
and we let people start
to do what they do:

00:12:14.590 --> 00:12:17.291
share it, comment, like it, hate it.

00:12:18.232 --> 00:12:22.562
But that meant that two years
before the building was complete,

00:12:22.586 --> 00:12:25.914
it was already a part of the community,

00:12:25.938 --> 00:12:32.204
so that when the renderings
looked exactly like the finished product,

00:12:32.228 --> 00:12:34.188
there were no surprises.

00:12:34.212 --> 00:12:38.100
This building was already a part
of this community,

00:12:38.124 --> 00:12:40.409
and then that first summer,

00:12:40.433 --> 00:12:44.351
when people started arriving
and sharing the building on social media,

00:12:44.375 --> 00:12:49.862
the building ceased to be just an edifice
and it became media,

00:12:49.886 --> 00:12:53.669
because these, these are not
just pictures of a building,

00:12:53.693 --> 00:12:56.080
they're your pictures of a building.

00:12:56.527 --> 00:12:59.814
And as you use them to tell your story,

00:12:59.838 --> 00:13:02.546
they become part
of your personal narrative,

00:13:02.570 --> 00:13:06.118
and what you're doing
is you're short-circuiting

00:13:06.142 --> 00:13:08.392
all of our collective memory,

00:13:08.416 --> 00:13:12.271
and you're making these charged symbols
for us to understand.

00:13:13.187 --> 00:13:15.476
That means we don't need
the Greeks anymore

00:13:15.500 --> 00:13:18.118
to tell us what to think
about architecture.

00:13:18.142 --> 00:13:22.167
We can tell each other
what we think about architecture,

00:13:22.191 --> 00:13:27.962
because digital media hasn't just changed
the relationship between all of us,

00:13:27.986 --> 00:13:31.515
it's changed the relationship
between us and buildings.

00:13:32.614 --> 00:13:35.732
Think for a second about
those librarians back in Livingston.

00:13:36.390 --> 00:13:38.805
If that building was going
to be built today,

00:13:38.829 --> 00:13:43.473
the first thing they would do is go online
and search "new libraries."

00:13:43.705 --> 00:13:48.975
They would be bombarded by examples
of experimentation, of innovation,

00:13:48.999 --> 00:13:52.187
of pushing at the envelope
of what a library can be.

00:13:52.998 --> 00:13:54.341
That's ammunition.

00:13:54.846 --> 00:13:57.181
That's ammunition
that they can take with them

00:13:57.205 --> 00:14:00.330
to the mayor of Livingston,
to the people of Livingston,

00:14:00.354 --> 00:14:04.313
and say, there's no one answer
to what a library is today.

00:14:04.337 --> 00:14:05.822
Let's be a part of this.

00:14:06.287 --> 00:14:09.153
This abundance of experimentation

00:14:09.177 --> 00:14:12.236
gives them the freedom
to run their own experiment.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:14.452 --> 00:14:16.664
Everything is different now.

00:14:16.664 --> 00:14:20.019
Architects are no longer
these mysterious creatures

00:14:20.043 --> 00:14:22.538
that use big words
and complicated drawings,

00:14:22.562 --> 00:14:25.522
and you aren't the hapless public,

00:14:25.546 --> 00:14:29.081
the consumer that won't accept
anything that they haven't seen anymore.

00:14:30.980 --> 00:14:32.713
Architects can hear you,

00:14:32.737 --> 00:14:34.841
and you're not intimidated
by architecture.

00:14:35.770 --> 00:14:39.152
That means that that pendulum
swinging back and forth

00:14:39.176 --> 00:14:42.154
from style to style,
from movement to movement,

00:14:42.178 --> 00:14:43.459
is irrelevant.

00:14:43.680 --> 00:14:46.280
We can actually move forward

00:14:46.304 --> 00:14:50.670
and find relevant solutions
to the problems that our society faces.

00:14:51.757 --> 00:14:55.199
This is the end of architectural history,

00:14:55.223 --> 00:14:58.091
and it means that
the buildings of tomorrow

00:14:58.115 --> 00:15:01.278
are going to look a lot different
than the buildings of today.

00:15:02.389 --> 00:15:06.797
It means that a public space
in the ancient city of Seville

00:15:06.821 --> 00:15:11.005
can be unique and tailored
to the way that a modern city works.

00:15:11.992 --> 00:15:16.411
It means that a stadium in Brooklyn
can be a stadium in Brooklyn,

00:15:16.435 --> 00:15:19.197
not some red-brick historical pastiche

00:15:19.221 --> 00:15:21.701
of what we think a stadium ought to be.

00:15:22.540 --> 00:15:25.373
It means that robots are going
to build our buildings,

00:15:25.397 --> 00:15:29.014
because we're finally ready for the forms
that they're going to produce.

00:15:29.842 --> 00:15:33.693
And it means that buildings
will twist to the whims of nature

00:15:33.717 --> 00:15:35.520
instead of the other way around.

00:15:36.676 --> 00:15:40.280
It means that a parking garage
in Miami Beach, Florida,

00:15:40.304 --> 00:15:42.788
can also be a place for sports

00:15:42.812 --> 00:15:44.191
and for yoga

00:15:44.215 --> 00:15:46.794
and you can even
get married there late at night.

00:15:46.818 --> 00:15:47.842
(Laughter)

00:15:47.866 --> 00:15:52.029
It means that three architects
can dream about swimming

00:15:52.053 --> 00:15:53.973
in the East River of New York,

00:15:53.997 --> 00:15:56.487
and then raise nearly
half a million dollars

00:15:56.511 --> 00:15:59.839
from a community
that gathered around their cause,

00:15:59.863 --> 00:16:01.593
no one client anymore.

00:16:02.765 --> 00:16:05.666
It means that no building
is too small for innovation,

00:16:05.690 --> 00:16:07.888
like this little reindeer pavilion

00:16:07.912 --> 00:16:13.003
that's as muscly and sinewy
as the animals it's designed to observe.

00:16:13.808 --> 00:16:16.546
And it means that a building
doesn't have to be beautiful

00:16:16.570 --> 00:16:17.863
to be lovable,

00:16:17.887 --> 00:16:20.902
like this ugly little building in Spain,

00:16:20.926 --> 00:16:23.407
where the architects dug a hole,

00:16:23.431 --> 00:16:24.813
packed it with hay,

00:16:24.837 --> 00:16:27.170
and then poured concrete around it,

00:16:27.194 --> 00:16:28.834
and when the concrete dried,

00:16:28.858 --> 00:16:32.418
they invited someone to come
and clean that hay out

00:16:32.442 --> 00:16:35.373
so that all that's left when it's done

00:16:35.397 --> 00:16:38.072
is this hideous little room

00:16:38.096 --> 00:16:44.050
that's filled with the imprints
and scratches of how that place was made,

00:16:44.074 --> 00:16:48.558
and that becomes the most sublime place
to watch a Spanish sunset.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:49.658 --> 00:16:53.013
Because it doesn't matter
if a cow builds our buildings

00:16:53.037 --> 00:16:54.847
or a robot builds our buildings.

00:16:54.871 --> 00:16:58.219
It doesn't matter how we build,
it matters what we build.

00:16:58.899 --> 00:17:02.324
Architects already know how
to make buildings that are greener

00:17:02.348 --> 00:17:04.506
and smarter and friendlier.

00:17:04.530 --> 00:17:07.104
We've just been waiting
for all of you to want them.

00:17:08.022 --> 00:17:11.350
And finally, we're not
on opposite sides anymore.

00:17:11.957 --> 00:17:14.929
Find an architect, hire an architect,

00:17:14.953 --> 00:17:20.770
work with us to design better buildings,
better cities, and a better world,

00:17:20.794 --> 00:17:23.034
because the stakes are high.

00:17:23.635 --> 00:17:28.825
Buildings don't just reflect our society,
they shape our society

00:17:28.849 --> 00:17:30.901
down to the smallest spaces:

00:17:30.925 --> 00:17:32.929
the local libraries,

00:17:32.953 --> 00:17:35.382
the homes where we raise our children,

00:17:35.406 --> 00:17:38.599
and the walk that they take
from the bedroom to the bathroom.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:39.288 --> 00:17:40.388
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:40.412 --> 00:17:43.412
(Applause)