Artst Talk, is a new take on the talk show format hosted by award winning producer, artist, designer, and businessman Pharrell Williams. Each episode features two special guests at different career stages to discuss their work, motivations, inspirations, and philosophies. In this episode, "Pharrell Williams discusses starchitecture with his guests Alex Gorlin, architect, and Daniel Arsham, artist. Gorlin then discusses his work with Common Ground, a non-profit that helps produce housing for homeless people that positively impacts the neighborhood.
Alex Gorlin is a well respected and awarded winning architect practicing in New York City and author of Tomorrow's Houses. During the interview, Gorlin states, "architecture is an interesting discipline, its nothing without the people who experiences it." He adds that architecture allows people to inhabitant the visions and thoughts of the architect. Pharrell concludes, "We are sitting in your idea, that's deep." This dialogue was refreshing to hear, as it is my belief that architects and urban planners have an ethical responsibility to make conscious decisions which promote cultural and social welfare for the inhabitants of our spaces. This has not always been the case for architects, urban planners working in communities which are underrepresented within the profession. We must acknowledge that architecture is beyond bricks and mortar, our ideas, once implemented in the physical environment, become the incubators of social and cultural development.
When asked what architects inspire his work, Gorlin mentions two of my favorite architects, Frank Lloyd Wright and LeCorbusier. He elaborated on LeCorbusier saying when he first saw some of his works, they were mind blowing. I'm sure hearing a 1925 criticism of LeCobusier's visions for the modern city of tomorrow was a direct prediction of hip hop culture as a social response to his mechanical approach to people and architecture, would peek Gorlin's and Williams' curiosities as well. This was the focus of my lecture titled, "LeCorbusier, The Forefather of Hip Hop Culture", at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning.