REX architecture/ joshua prince ramus designboom interview REX architecture/ joshua prince ramus designboom interview
oct 13, 2009

REX architecture/ joshua prince ramus designboom interview

museum plaza, louisville, kentucky, 2009 image courtesy REX architecture

was born in in 1969, received a bachelor of arts in philosophy with distinction from yale university in 1991and a master of architecture from harvard university in 1996. joshua prince-ramus is president of REX and principal in charge of all projects.

designboom met joshua prince-ramus in new york on may 13, 2009.

db: what advice would you give to the young?

yes. I have one specific piece of advice, which is actually: don’t follow conventional paths. this is the best moment you could ever be a young architect, because the playing field is even. for a long time, the older generations have eaten the young. they’re going down right now and there’s no definition of what architecture will be. don’t try to get a junior job at the best firm you can and spend the next 30 years trying to work your way through. this is the moment to move home, use all your contacts and start operating locally and do great work locally and define what architecture will be for the next 50 years. the more general advice is that no one can teach you design. no one’s going to teach you in architecture school to be good. they might teach you to be self-critical, but you’re either going to be self-critical or you’re not. in school you should focus on learning contracts (laughs) and spend most of your time – if you’re in architecture school – over at the law school or the business school because that’s where you’re going to learn the tools. the real things you can learn in architecture school are tools. focus on tools not on your studio course.

read the interview in full joshua prince-ramus

ridhika naidoo I designboom
oct 13, 2009

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