Hugh Newell Jacobsen:
The eloquence in the language of architecture is measured by how a building is put together. The joining of materials in a manner that retains the integrity of each part, while assigning a function compatible and advantageous to its nature, has always been a measure of “seriousness” in architecture.
“God is in the details” is a phrase attributed to Mies Van Der Rohe and revered by architects as we endeavor again and again to do the right thing. Architecture is order, and this order carries throughout the building down to the smallest corner. There is no back side to architecture any more than there is a detail that is unimportant. Detailing expresses the “how” of buildings and when done with great care and skill reinforces the “why.” It can express the honesty not only of the architecture but of all those involved in the making of it. It is a slow process whose results are seldom noticed. It has been said that good detailing should never show the agony it took to produce it, but should appear as if it had not been detailed at all, as if it went together the way it wanted to go together–or as Kahn has said, “the way it wants to be.”
Another one of my favorites: Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Architect
