0084
01-03-1997
SEVEN LAMPS
Liesbeth van der Pol
Architect
Collection: The written versus the constructed
The principles established by John Ruskin in the ‘Seven Lamps of Architecture’ (1849) were a source of influence as strong on architecture as they were on the appreciation of art. These principles were:
SACRIFICE
– architecture, as against mere building, takes into account the venerable and beautiful, however ‘unnecessary’;
TRUTH
– no disguised supports, no sham materials, no machine work for handwork;
POWER
– simple grand massing;
BEAUTY
– only possible by imitation of, or inspiration from, nature;
LIFE
– architecture must express a fullness of life, imbrace boldness and irregularity, scorn refinement, and also be the work of men as men, i.e. handwork;
MEMORY
– the greatest glory of a building is its age, and we must therefore build for perpetuity;
OBEDIANCE
– a style must be universally accepted: ‘We want no new style’, ‘the forms of architecture already known are good enough for us’.
(J. Fleming, H. Honour, N. Pevsner, The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture)
