PORTFOLIO ZACHARY B. BURSON / selected architectural work 2011 . 2016
when you walk 25-30 feet above ground, it is a miracle, because you are still in the city … but you are flying above the city. You are in the middle of trees, and that is a moment of beauty. your only legend is making an allegation. if I was to realize new buildings I should have to have new technique. I should have to design buildings that they would not only be appropriate to materials but design them so the machine that would have to make them could make them surpassingly well. impossible is nothing. i can hear the war drums approaching, slowly, surely, undeniably. they come like the swiftness of night among the stars. the fact is that automobiles no longer have a place in the big cities of our time. never talk to a client about architecture. talk to him about his children. that is simply good politics. he will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time. an architect of ability should be able to tell a client what he wants. most of the time a client never knows what he wants. if you weren’t an optimist, it would be impossible to be an architect. public space is the city. 98% of what gets built today is shit. the best engineer a few decades ago was someone who could create the most beautiful beam or structure; today it’s to do a structure you cannot see or understand how it’s done. it disappears and you can talk only about color, symbols, and light. it’s an aesthetic of miracle. the world is undeniably beautiful, it is man who needs the work. a world which sees art and engineering as divided is not seeing the world as a whole. architecture is the constant fight between man and nature, the fight to overwhelm nature, to possess it. the first act of architecture is to put a stone on the ground. that act transforms a condition of nature into a condition of culture; it’s a holy act. beware of overconfidence. it is the light of the sun that illuminates the truth of most things. shakespeare never wrote anything. most of the time I hear only nonsense. I set fire to the rain. I was given keys to the city of your dreams. let this music serve the deed. I can’t predict the past. superman is an awful superhero. there was no checking of typos in this entire portfolio. “whom shall I send? and who will go for us?” and I said, “here am I. send me!” everything you can imagine is real. you must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star. I want to write my own eulogy, and I want to write it in Latin. it seems only fitting to read a dead language at my funeral. the life of a designer is one of fight: fight against the ugliness. basically, the idea is that with everyone striving to be revolutionary, you will be most revolutionary if you try to be ordinary. I am always searching for more light and space. a sheep among wolves stands out because it is a sheep.