ABSTRACT
There is an apocryphal story, popular amongst architectural students, that upon leaving a Rem Koolhaas lecture, a bewildered attendee was asked by a colleague what it had been about. ‘I have absolutely no idea,’ the hapless listener replied, ‘either I’m stupid or that guy’s a genius.’ Apocryphal or not, this charming anecdote indicates a prevailing perception amongst many in society, not the least of whom are baffl ed architecture students, that much of the language adopted by architects is utterly unintelligible. Flowery prose, pretentious musings, convoluted phraseology and intellectual narcissism are just some of the accusations leveled against the type of language adopted by some in the profession.
