Steven Holl Interview: Spaces Like Music

“The soul has more need for the ideal than the real,” says American architect Steven Holl, who here shares his organic approach to creating architecture that can potentially change people’s lives. Architecture ”begins with a site and a circumstance, a situation and a programme” according to Holl. Therefore it should be reinvented for every situation instead of simply aiming for a signature style. Holl’s focus is thus on the place rather than on the need to strengthen a given brand, which seems prevalent in modern society. The organic relation between everything, the intertwining of every element and material, including the light, is an important part of how Holl creates his architectural designs. “Architecture is about shaping space”, states Holl, and the experience of the architectural space should be pure and free of the conceptual strategies behind it – just as when you experience and appreciate music. “The soul has more need for the ideal than the real,” he continues, explaining how