Franco La Cecla > Quotes

“In short, the architect is an artist, but in a renewed sense he is more than anything a ‘trend-setter’.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“Quello che è accaduto a Piazza Tahrir è un fenomeno dello stesso tipo. Abituati, come siamo, a pensare che i cambiamenti avvengano «on line» o a scala globalizzata, non intuiamo che essi sono fatti di corpi umani in spazi urbani e che la sola presenza in piazza di persone che rivendicano il proprio diritto alla città è un fatto politico di natura esplosiva.”
― Franco La Cecla, Contro l'urbanistica: La cultura delle città

“This book is an indictment against the laziness of a profession that used to promise a lot and that today is a washout.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“L’antropologia è una forma di conoscenza per travestimento; come dice Tim Ingold, «l’antropologia è la filosofia che ha il coraggio di vivere fuori»”
― Franco La Cecla, Contro l'urbanistica: La cultura delle città

“Today even the street-people have to beg pardon, or find a disguise so as not to disrupt the general décor.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“…architecture, even among its most cultured personalities, is a world that reads only what is strictly defined by the discipline of architecture, rather like art critics.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“Living is the direct communication between the subconscious of the city and the subconscious of the inhabitants.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“It is by now fairly clear that compromised as they [architects] are in their attempt to participate in the festivities of Casino Capitalism, they have long since lost the sense of a profession that could still prove useful…”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“But everyone knows architects don’t read, they riffle.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“Tourists come to New York so they can feel modern, to buy into the modernity, that delirium extolled by Koolhaas that has been over for quite some time.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“…there is a connection between the way in which the suburbs are made and the ugliness of the social life they provoke.”
― Franco La Cecla

“...perhaps powerful architects are worse than powerful philosophers; at a certain point they lose themselves in their heavenly kingdom.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“Architects are completely taken in by their own alibi, and while the ship sinks, they who once had the competency of carpenters are nowadays occupying themselves with paper-hanging: the ship is going down, but the important thing is to seize the last hand in the Casino Capitalism Party Room.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“Cities dream of other cities.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture

“Today Barcelona is at a rather complicated crossroads. The revolution that the architects have achieved there has been absorbed by the branding to which the same architects and administrators have given too much credit. If your city transforms itself into a logo, sooner or later it is better if you go and live somewhere else.”
― Franco La Cecla, Against Architecture