Economy of Means

Economy of means suggests the challenge of using one mean for multiple ends, investigating what makes the category both a mark and a precondition of a rational architecture. It is a truth universally acknowledged that resources of all types, in all parts of the world, must be managed with greater consciousness and care as the twenty-first century waxes. Architects explore the limits and definition of architecture itself by reducing the material, economic and conceptual means they resort to in a building project.

Albert Frey, Canvas Weekend House, Fort Salonga, Northport, Long Island, New York, 1933-4 Special Collections, Jonh D. Rockfeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Wiliamsburg Foundation

Economy of means is an aesthetic category as well as a tool of conception. It allows us to imagine and evaluate results. It is at the core of any relevant design, whatever the medium. In its usual meaning it consists in using as few means as possible to reach a specific goal. Beyond this, we link it to any attitude based upon a critical approach towards the means used to create something. Economy of means can concern process as well as results. It is an investigation of form in all its dimensions. Form is the horizon of any human activity pushed to a high level of accomplishment. Economy of means is the DNA of good forms. Architecture consists in defining the good form for a building. Using few and carefully surveyed means allow architects to provide meaning and intelligibility to their buildings.

OMA Rem Koolhaas, Très Grande Bibliothèque (TGB), plan, Paris, 1989. © Centre Pompidou, Paris.

It is a multisensory exhibition, drawn on a large number of contemporary and historical examples, that explores the innovative ways in which architects and designers are guided toward more responsible, ethical, sustainable and ultimately beautiful solutions to local and global challenges, as well as intersections between architecture and other visual arts.