We are the only ones who are willing to admit that all knowledge is contaminated, including even our own.
Carl Rapp, “On the New Historicists,” 2005
Architecture is in the grips of a revival of historicism, in which the styles and strategies of the past have become a new source of inspiration for architects.
Follies as ruins, or as imitations of ruins, became the vehicles for such instant nostalgia encouraged by historicist regrets and supported by consumerist atavism. Here the Baroque cult of ruins was transformed from a simply relished fragmentation, a sense of the transience of history and the mortality of man into a ‘history lesson.’
I'm afraid that what we've done with the [Charleston Board of Architectural Review] over the years ... is we intimidate people to bring to us only those things which imitate the past, rather than being bold and stepping forward with something that should be a move into the future.
Bill Wallace, "On the Charleston Board of Architectural Review," 2011
Leon Krier, Form and Content of Objects, c. 2000 (via polis)
Ben Moore, "Three Classicists: Ben Pentreath, George Saumarez Smith and Francis Terry," Kowalsky Gallery, London, England, 2010