ARCHITECTURE:Yona Friedman-Advice to the Young

What piece of advice would a renowned 94-year-old architect offer young architects? Find out in this short video, where Yona Friedman argues that architects must always adapt to the context and work for the average user.

“Understand that it’s not the architect who is the important person in the process.” Friedman stresses that besides adjusting to the given circumstances, architects must also remember that the given context is always more complex than what you learn in textbooks – one therefore has to “experience it directly.”

Yona Friedman (b. 1923) in Budapest, Hungary is an architect, urban planner and designer, who lives and works in Paris, France. He was trained as an architect and rose to prominence with his manifesto L’Architecture Mobile (mobile architecture) and his idea for a different approach to urban growth with the ‘Ville Spatiale’ in 1956. Working on the principles for the Ville Spatiale, Friedman wanted to provide maximum flexibility through huge ‘superstructures’ over existing cities and other locations. The idea was for future inhabitants to be free to construct their residences within these structures, his architectural projects aiming to help and inspire people to do things independently. Friedman’s work – which includes sociology, economics, mathematics, information science, planning, visual art and film-making – consists mainly of proposals set out in drawings and models.

Yona Friedman, Advice to the Young, Interview by Kasper Bech Dyg, Camera: Anders Lindved, Produced and edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg, © Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2017, Supported by Dreyers Fond