Manifesto Against Reduction

…ask architecture only to be beautiful.

…think dreams are merely meaningless by-products of sleep.

…think a symbol is merely decoration.

…think art is irrelevant.

…think myth is a lie.

…think an archetype is merely a Jungian term.

…think a book is just fiction.

…think architecture cannot be an intellectual provocation.

…want architecture to confirm their persona.

…have never tried to understand their own dreams.

…want architecture to conceal what they refuse to see in themselves.

…think a mirror is useful only when it reflects a face.

…have never encountered their own shadow.

…think introspection is a waste of time.

…believe comfort is the highest purpose of space.

…think every form of discomfort should be eliminated.

…think art must always be pleasant.

…think aesthetics begin with the choice of materials.

…think fiction is an escape from reality.

…think style can replace an idea.

…think originality means creating something that has never been seen before.

…think tradition is the same as nostalgia.

…think the past should either be copied or rejected.

…think history has nothing to say to contemporary architecture.

…think an invented story cannot reveal truth.

…think metaphysics is useless because it cannot be measured.

…recognize only what can fit into a table.

…think rationality is the only legitimate form of knowledge.

…think everything of value can be explained through function.

…think that what never happened cannot be true.

…think space has no psychological reality.

…think human beings inhabit only square metres.

…think function comes before meaning.

…think philosophy and architecture have nothing to do with one another.

…dismiss philosophy as mere “philosophizing.”

…have never seriously considered what good means.

…think the invented is the opposite of the true.

…have never confronted the problem of ethics.

…think truth is merely a matter of perspective.

…use relativism as an excuse never to take a position.

…think piety and religiosity are the same thing.

…think spirituality begins where reason ends.

…think psychology exists only to treat problems.

…think individuation is simply another name for “self-improvement.”

…think a person should merely become a better version of their persona.

…think architecture should speak about the architect.

…think space is merely the background of life rather than an active participant in it.

…ask nothing more of a house than shelter.

…never want space to call them into question.

…think truth exists only in facts.

…think fiction has no value as a form of knowledge.

…think language is learned like any other skill.

…think a story can never be truer than an event.