Meaning is sanctified in architecture, held up as a human rights issue or other noble virtue. Grandiose claims laid on such inert objects as buildings result in an aura of mystery and privileged understanding. Perhaps that is the goal: a grail to be sought but never quite found. This observation is harsh but factual. Given its glorification, it is odd that there is no commonly agreed upon definition of what architectural meaning is or meaningful architectural experiences are. There is a tacit agreement, it seems, to follow US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s example when he was faced with defining hardcore pornography: I don’t know how to describe [meaning], “but I know it when I see it,” or feel it, if that isn’t the same thing.
On the surface, avoiding definition suggests a kind of humility – an unwillingness to trespass the limits of what is stateable in language or to usurp the rights of the poetic in the service of the prosaic. Early Wittgenstein meets late Bachelard. Noble Socrates acknowledging his limitations.
Hardly noble, it is just so much intellectual cover. And misdirection. For “I know it when I see it” too is an implied reference to truth. Meaningful architectural experiences are treated as things as real and as difficult as religious epiphanies or hardcore pornography, seldom encountered but nevertheless factual and inherently as discernable into categories of good and bad. “I know it when I see it” maximizes the mystery for those who don’t see but would like to while heightening the esteem of architects who apparently possess gifts of insight, vision, understanding, and who toil to create opportunities for new meaningful experiences for others.
“I know it when I see it” is, of course, just one form of cover and misdirection, albeit pervasive. The other dominant form, the form privileged in academia, is the obfuscation of erudition (stated tongue-in-cheek). Simply stated, this is the tendency to forgo simple statements rooted in the lived experiences of non-architects in favor of literature reviews and endless references to evermore obscure sources. Nothing both evokes a sense of seriousness and plunges a topic into mystery quite like recounting the etymology of a word or phrase from ancient Greek or Latin. Unfortunately, erudition almost always serves and fails to serve the same ends as “I know it when I see it” – the commentator maintains his or her elevated status of having access to knowledge others do not possess and the reader learns a bit of academic trivia but gets no closer to understanding the topic at hand.
Architecture is Fiction 