Why Do Architects Wear Black?

In 2008, this collec­tion of auto­graphs appeared as a small publi­ca­ti­on — obvious­ly bound in black. For the pur­po­se of the new edi­ti­on, this legen­da­ry collec­tion was expan­ded by new nota­ble, amu­sing, prag­ma­tic, and quir­ky rea­sons: “Plea­se read — and don’t ask me why archi­tects wear black!”. (Cor­du­la Rau) 2. Auflage!

War­um tra­gen Archi­tek­ten eigent­lich Schwarz? Obwohl Cor­du­la Rau Archi­tek­tin ist und selbst schwarz trägt, wuss­te sie spon­tan kei­ne Ant­wort. Sie beschloss, ande­re Archi­tek­ten zu fra­gen, und sam­mel­te deren hand­schrift­li­che Ant­wor­ten in einem Notiz­buch. Die­se Samm­lung von Auto­gra­phen wur­de zu einem klei­nen — natür­lich schwarz gebun­de­nen — Werk. “Lesen Sie — und bit­te fra­gen Sie mich nicht, war­um Archi­tek­ten schwarz tra­gen!” (Cor­du­la Rau)

“Why is it real­ly that archi­tects wear black?” was a ques­ti­on put to Cor­du­la Rau by an auto­mo­ti­ve indus­try mana­ger during an archi­tec­tu­ral com­pe­ti­ti­on. Even though she herself is an archi­tect, and wears black, she did not have an ans­wer on the spot. So she deci­ded to ask other archi­tects, as well as artists and desi­gners. She has been collec­ting their hand­writ­ten replies in a note­book sin­ce 2001.