Landscape/Site/Time

How important is the history of a site? Is it alright to omit it with a focused eye on the future of the site?

Weathering/Shadow/Memory

Adolfo Natalini mentioned that the Chinese found immobility sacred and built the Great Wall the keep wandering barbarians out of their land. What is wrong with mobility and constant migration? What's wrong with not having a place but a memory full of places?

Beginnings/Order/Proportion

The room is the beginning of architecture according to Louis Kahn. In what ways do you feel it is or isn't the beginning? What is the beginning of architecture to you? Why?

People/Place/Occasion

Do you agree with Aldo van Eyck's concern with twin phenomena? Or do you feel that the in-between could be incoherent or misleading in architecture?

Craft/Making/Tectonics

In David Pye's "The Workmanship of Risk and the Workmanship of Certainty," he mentions that without workmanship there would be no design and that without workmanship, design can't be realized as the designer intended. It seems workmanship has a double hold on architecture. When choosing materials, most architects design considering finished materials that have been crafted by workmen. Workmen provide architects the pallet they use for their designs. What would be designed if there was nothing to build with? Then workmen determine the quality of the finished building. A mistake on their part in the construction could ruin the architect's ideal vision of his intent.

How do you view this relationship between design and workmanship? Could design have a hold on workmanship? Do they both make each other better? Can architecture still be good using poor materials? Can good workmanship make bad architecture better?

Sustainable Practices and Thinking Ecologically

If the first humans were sustainable, and now we aren't; what is the best way to become sustainable? Are the answers in the past or future? Over time, modern technology has cost us our sustainability. Can newer technology give it back?

Global/Local

What makes something local? It seems as time goes on, the range of local has been expanded. Centuries ago, most people never traveled outside a five mile radius from their homes their entire lives, and they probably didn't consider anything outside their small community to be local. With advancements in transportation, the range of local has increased. People began to identify their local with their city, not just their neighborhood; their state, not just their city; and so on. Now things can be transported to anywhere from anywhere on the globe. Is globalization a product of growing and merging locals? Is globalization a way of localizing everything? Will the day come when we identify our local as our planet, or even our solar system?