I came across this confident statement in the September issue of New York Review of Architecture, in a rather breathless review of a recent book about Aline and Eero Saarinen: “It is through media, of course, that we primarily consume architecture.” I was brought up short. How preposterous, I said to myself. But on second thought I realized that it was all too true. If there is an audience for architecture—and judging from the almost total absence of architecture columns in the mainstream press one has to be doubtful—it’s likely that its chief connection with architecture is through media rather than first-hand experience. And, consumers, as opposed to building occupants, need to be amused, tittilated, and entertained. The experience of a great building is complex and involves tactile qualities as well as historical memory, attributes that are difficult to convey on a iPhone. I suppose if Steen Eiler Rasmussen were writing his classic handbook today he would have to call it Consuming Architecture. How sad.
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