““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, d. 2020) in Budapest, Hungary was an architect, urban planner and designer, who lived and worked 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 was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg in July 2017 at the Danish Association of Architects in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Camera: Anders Lindved
Produced and edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2017
Supported by Dreyers Fond