SUMMARY

This interview covers the upbringing, education, and career of architect Preston Scott Cohen. Growing up in North Carolina, he was exposed to architecture from a young age and took great interest in it through downtown Asheville. Scott explained that during his time at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) he engaged in debates on modernism vs. postmodernism and studied under figures such as Judith Wolin, Rodolfo Machado, Michael Hayes. During this time, he grew fond of Robert Venturi and took inspiration. In the 1980s, Scott described his early work as fixed in a sense of tensions between constraints and as a result, the facades of his first houses were asymmetrical. Scott’s time in Rome was influential as his analysis of the Palazzo del Te grew his interest in inherent problems in architecture and how to adapt to them. These ideas later heavily shaped his teaching and works. Scott pursued further education at Harvard’s GSD, where he was exposed to Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman and the culture of the IAUS. Subsequently, he transitioned into teaching where he focused on real world conditions, emphasizing the analysis of constraints, and looking at architecture as a discipline.