SYLVIA LAVININ A CONTEMPORARY MOODAsymptote Architecture: Yas Viceroy Hotel, Abu Dhabi (2009)

“…architecture must relinquish its nostalgicmodernity and get contemporary.”

“An effect may be understood as a condition that is detachablefrom the logic of causality. “

“Through accumulation, lamination, decoration, coloration, agitation, plastification, and environmentalization, surfaces can curate effective

moods, and when the effects are special, they catalyze the contemporary.”

“The best effects are special effects and contemporaneity

relies on them.”

“These moments of excitement, like any moment of excitement, can be a bit

embarrassing: ardor can entailclumsiness and experimentation can lead

to failure as well as success.”

“But without risking the heat of these spikes in the field of effects,architecture is reduced to producing the reliable and the tepid.”

“And however short its shelf life, a special effect is especially vivid.”

“Of paramount importance is the de-emphasis on volume, the logic of the plan, and the ethics of rationalism in favor of atmospheres produced through the curation of the surface.”

“Special effects are more like durable goods; here today, still heretomorrow, but probably gone next year.”

“…better now than forever.”