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Witold Rybczynski

Witold Rybczynski

Canadian-American architect and professor

Sep 18, 2026

5:09
Mm-hmm
5:09
... there's many ways to, to kind of classify architects, but one way is there have always been architects who look to vernacular and incorporate it in their work.
5:20
And I mean, an odd example is Palladio himself.
5:23
Palladio built basically vernacular farmhouses, but then he explored connecting them to Roman classicism, historical classicism as it was in his case, th- that he'd studied.
5:39
And so, so these buildings are both vernacular and grand at the same time.
5:44
And, and then, and that applies, I think, to contemporary architects.
5:48
A, an architect like Charles Moore or Venturi in a more considered way both look to vernacular in their work, whereas an architect like I. M. Pei doesn't.
7:59
You know, a, a work of art is created and a problem is solved, both.
8:39
So Witold, the early cars, uh, did they find acceptance, uh, at, at least at some level by a lot of people? Were people eager to get into cars, or did they, uh, sort of shy away from them figuring that "These are dangerous machines that could kill me"?
8:55
No, I, I did not come across resistance.
8:58
The car spreads very, very quickly.
9:00
And of course it doesn't travel that very fast.
9:04
The first car in the world travels at something like 20 miles an hour top speed.
9:10
Uh, and so I think people were probably surprised by it.
9:14
There was...

11 MINS LATER

20:02
And he has said that many of these changes he has witnessed in his lifetime.

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