The concept of architectural style is outdated. What once served as a way to categorize historical movements has become a shallow framework. Today, style is used to market buildings, to reduce complex experiences into surface aesthetics, and to support cultural narratives that often ignore the depth of human experience.
But architecture is not about appearance. It is not something to be consumed visually. Architecture is something we inhabit. It is experienced through movement, memory, atmosphere, and the unspoken logic of how space relates to the body.
From a phenomenological perspective, style is irrelevant. We do not remember a space as “Baroque” or “Brutalist” when we live in it. We remember the echo of footsteps in the hallway, the warmth of the sun on a particular wall, or the sound of rain on a skylight. These are lived experiences, not stylistic choices. They define the essence of place.
Critical theory takes us further. It reveals how style often conceals deeper structures of power. A sleek glass tower may reflect the aesthetics of modernity while erasing the labor and displacement required to build it. A “vernacular” detail may be used to sell authenticity in a gentrified neighborhood, while the people who once defined that vernacular are pushed out.
The problem is not that style exists. The problem is that style has been used as a substitute for substance.
This is precisely why I have chosen to be eclectic in my architecture. I design for people, not for form. I am not pursuing what Juhani Pallasmaa called “visual seduction.” I am not interested in appealing to passing trends or formal signatures. My work is grounded in the belief that architecture must serve, shelter, and inspire. My path takes me through vernacular traditions with the same enthusiasm I bring to the contemporary. I do not see contradiction in that. I see continuity.
My architecture is not stylistic. It is contextual. Each project emerges from its environment, its people, its history, and its future. I strive to make buildings that belong, and not because they imitate, but because they listen.
Architecture is not a matter of taste. It is a matter of truth.
To move beyond style is not to abandon beauty. It is to uncover meaning.
Below: Two Upcoming Projects with almost contradicting aesthetics.
