"The citizen architect is a citizen first, architect second. His concepts, his work, his buildings are all too human; not separate from the world he lives in, but are very much of it. He learns of himself, of his surroundings, through the lens of society. He observes the strengths, faults, differences and ambitions of those around him. That is to say, his strengths, faults and his ambitions. Rather than playing the role of the inventor, purposely creative, a wizard with an indiscriminant pencil for a wand, the citizen architect is more of an archaeologist. Always digging. Always sorting. And occasionally coming across an architecture truly remarkable, as if what he has discovered has existed long before his involvement. This found architecture scares him and, at the same time, is a source of infinite hope..."
Work produced by Jose Luis Gabriel Cruz in the Monograph Studio at Columbia University, GSAPP. Critics: LOT-EK (Ada Tolla, Giuseppe Lignano, Thomas de Monchaux)
