250 things that an Architect should know
Michael Sorkin, the noted architectural critic and educator who passed away last month in covid-19 wrote about 250 things that an architect should know in his book What Goes Up . I have to admit that I myself don’t know probably 50 percent of items listed. but it’s fun to go through this list once in a while and assess our knowledge and position in this regard. Hold your breath. Here are the 250 things: 1.The feel of cool marble under bare feet.2.How to live in a small room with five strangers for six months.3.With the same strangers in a lifeboat for one week.4.The modulus of rupture.5.The distance a shout carries in the city.6.The distance of a whisper.7.Everything possible about Hatshepsut’s temple (try not to see it as “modernist” avant la lettre).8.The number of people with rent subsidies in New York City.9.In your town (include the rich).10.The flowering season for azaleas.11.The insulating properties of glass.12.The history of its production and use.13.And of its meaning.14.How to lay bricks.15.What Victor Hugo really meant by “this will kill …