MANIFESTO

PANAGIOTIS ZAKKAS, ARCHITECT

Design Principles

The architecture I am interested in does not begin with image, but with use, construction and material conditions. I approach design as a process of decision-making within real constraints, where form emerges from structure, economy of means and the everyday experience of space. The manifesto that follows summarises the principles that guide my thinking and practice – principles that are simple, clear and applicable.

 

 

1. Architecture serves life.

Function precedes form.

 

2. Construction generates architecture.

What cannot stand cannot exist.

 

3. Every material is honest.

It imitates nothing and hides behind nothing.

 

4. Structure is visible.

The bearing system is the building’s true language.

 

5. Nothing unnecessary.

Ornament is noise; clarity is intent.

 

6. Geometry is a tool, not a style.

Precision, proportion, rhythm.

 

7. Abstraction is method.

I subtract until only the essential remains.

 

8. Economy of means is a virtue.

What can be done simply must be done simply.

 

9. Space is experience.

Light, movement and time are the primal materials of architecture.

 

10. Silence is a quality.

A space that does not shout allows life to be heard.

 

11. Architecture is a system.

Relationships, functions, construction – not image.

 

12. Architecture is judged in practice.

In construction, in use and over time.