Architecture is a Cause: A Special Lecture with Steven Holl at Yacademy
By Amina Alchihabi, Federica Pellis, and Giuliana Sabelli
Students of the "Architecture for Exhibition" Course, 2025.
On December 10, 2025, the historic headquarters of Yacademy in Bologna became a forum for one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary phenomenology: Steven Holl. Accompanied by his wife and partner, Dimitra Tsachrelia, Holl’s presence within the "Architecture for Exhibition" course offered more than a masterclass; it provided a window into a practice where the conceptual "first thought" remains remarkably resilient against the pressures of modern construction.
From Watercolor to Reality: The Discipline of the "First Thought"
The lecture bypassed the rigidity of typical academic presentations, fueled instead by a visible intellectual vigor. For Holl, every project - regardless of scale or budget - begins on a 5x7-inch block of watercolor paper. These sketches are not merely aesthetic exercises; they function as the project’s genetic code.
The audience observed a rigorous fidelity between these fluid, abstract gestations and their final built forms. This translation from a wash of color to a complex structural system highlights a core challenge in exhibition design: protecting the atmospheric integrity of a space throughout the technical friction of the building process. As Holl navigated through his portfolio, his enthusiasm remained palpable, at one point pausing to declare, "I could talk about this for days without stopping!" This was not just a remark on his stamina, but a testament to architecture as a "cause" ﹣ a sustained obsession that fuels itself through every stage of design.
The creative process of “imaginary causes”
During the lecture, Steven Holl shared with the audience the characteristics of the creative process he employs while defining a project.
Firstly, the context plays a primary role in the concept definition process. Each design is unique and is highly dependent on the location of the project, with its own characteristics and traditional features. Moreover, constraints given by the location are more likely to drive the process towards a more definite idea, which applies sensibly to the context.
Moreover, Holl highlighted the importance of remaining open-minded above all, and shared his own method to keep his creativity flowing with the audience:
“One of the exercises I do is ﹣ every morning ﹣ a small watercolor.”
The creative mind, which is mostly dependent on intuition, is more prone to creativity in the early morning, according to Holl. Moreover, even dreams ﹣ defined as “conscious tapping into intuition” ﹣ can be helpful to the creative design process. Furthermore, the drawing starts as a free expression of the architect's sensitivity, which can often develop into an idea for the project. In Holl’s opinion, watercolors are a very versatile tool: a small notebook-size paper with portable colors is all you need to represent space, but also color and materiality.
Light as a Memorial Medium
A pivotal moment of the interview centered on the intersection of light, memory, and exhibition. When asked how architecture can preserve the past without resorting to literal historical mimicry, Holl’s response was characteristically phenomenological. He argued that light is an intentional building material, capable of revealing the passage of time through its orchestration within a space.
Recalling a recent journey, he described how light entering a space at a specific angle could transform an apse, effectively "inscribing" memory into the architecture. In the context of exhibition design, this approach suggests that a museum should not be a frozen repository, but a vessel perceived through the temporal movement of light.
A prime example discussed was his intervention at the Pratt Institute in New York. Here, memory is preserved through differentiation rather than mimicry. The dialogue between the pre-existing fabric and the new addition is articulated through varying qualities of light. By defining different temporal layers, Holl allows the past and present to coexist without erasing one another. Light, in this sense, operates as the ultimate medium for framing human experience and evoking memory without the need for historical literalness.
Conclusion: Beyond the Aesthetic
The meeting concluded under the open sky of Bologna, leaving the students not only with technical notes on museum phenomenology but with a redefined sense of architectural agency. Holl’s career demonstrates that the courage to "sketch a dream" must be matched by the determination to see it built. By treating architecture as a "cause" rather than a service, he reminds the next generation that, beyond the glass and steel, the architect’s true responsibility is the creation of spaces that resonate with the human spirit.