Statement 43

Theory [and I am here thinking of the Western tradition from Vitruvius triad to Heidegger’s Bauen and everything in between and on onward to Rem Koolhaas (though it is hard to tell is his writings are ‘theory’] is not really ‘a theory’ but an attempt to disclose the secret that can constrain operations around a set of critiques of culturally visible practices. Theory is an attempt at the reification of architecture’s magical nature. After all, how can something that appears almost out of nowhere, and promises so much to so many only then to disappear back ‘into the woodwork’ of culture find an anchoring system? [It might not be such a bad metaphor since architect comes from tekton – a carpenter. Architecture makes a business out of the perplexity without being ever perplexed. Perhaps therein lies one attempt to engage the secret of the secret.