About this talk

Running time: 26 minutes

John Johansen, a Harvard-educated New Yorker, has practised architecture since World War Two and since 1970 with Ashok Mohan Bhavnani. He taught at Yale, Columbia and the American Academy in Rome before becoming in 1976 Professor of Architecture at Pratt Institute, New York. Designer of many USA exhibitions and recipient of many of his country's top awards, he is the author of "The New Urban Aesthetic" (1972) and a number of provocative articles.

Johansen sees architecture not as a fine art but as a service art, serving people's needs. He does not "compose" his buildings, he "rigs" them. First comes the framework, and onto this he hangs the functional components (rooms etc.). He does not start off with a pre-conceived idea of form; he produces ad hoc architecture geared to change.

Furthermore, he sees all buildings as theatre, as the setting for Man's daily rituals. The users become part of the completion of the building.

In his talk he uses three of his very individual creations to illustrate his ideas.

This is the first of Johansen's talks for us. In 1997 he gave us Future Realities, and in 2010 Career Retrospective: John Johansen.

Please note that a transcript of this talk is available - please contact us for further details.