When civilizations throughout the world no longer had to worry about competeing in order to survive, in its literal sense, the desire for the 'good life' was established among cultures. Architecture, by definition, is the art and science of design and construction; the study and representation of statics. To the ignorant, architecture may seem to be the "thoughtless design of buildings", but it can actually be seen as a microcosm of society. Architecture .
Aldo van Eyck would hate to be characterized. He is the blend of practical usage; taking from both the past and the present without disregard for anything, keeping history in tension. This theory is known as Twinphenomena. He wants to reject Functionalism and the lack of originality in Modernism and return to Humanism- still searching for original solutions that lead to a subtle, innovative and appropriate architecture that effectively meets the users' needs. Van Eyck himself, has been mistakenly thought to oppose Modernism, and has even been placed as a first 'Post Modernist'. But he has simply reacted against the immediate reductionist architectural tendencies within modernism which held sway internationally for decades. Van Eyck is the self-proclaimed weaver of old and new, the interiorizer of the exterior. He is very aware of history and the benefits we all receive from it. Man has not changed in the last few thousand years as dramatically as some may perceive, "His natural genius", as van Eyck states, "has neither increased nor decreased during that time." We cannot reduce for the present without reflecting to the past. We cannot breath in without breathing out. He says that, "man still breaths both in and out. When is Modern Architecture going to do the same? We simply cannot breathe one way. We can hold our breath, but only for a short time. Modern architecture has been trying to breathe without breathing in." He does not want to be limited to the past nor the present alone.