An interesting comment by Jaquelin Robertson who was on a panel at the recent “Reconsidering Postmodernism” conference in New York. He observed that an architect has three clients. There is, obviously, the real client who is paying for the building. The second is the client inside you, the one who says “I want this, let’s do that.” According to Robertson this is a client you shouldn’t listen to. The third client is a person whom you’ve never met. Years from now, someone walks by the building and thinks, “How nice. Someone actually thought of that.” In a conversation later, Jaq pointed out to me that the real reason the old are revered in China is not that they are wiser, but that they have seen more. How true.
On Culture and Architecture
This is so clever! It also apply with any work of art. And the so called second client, is often a censor, an inside fussy client that one’s should keep a gag on.