The architectural development of the past fifteen years has made it clear that in its essence modernism is not a visual stylistic canon at all, but a dialectic philosophical position in relation to the reality of culture. The modernist position is an attitude of re-reading of the past as well as of the present human condition. It is a continuous process of questioning the accepted cultural convention. The modernist places himself in a dialogue between the past and the present, collective and individual, convention and innovation. In this dialectic tension neither opposite is given a priori supremacy; the unique balance between the opposites is sought in each individual case.”

                                                                                                                                        Juhani Pallasmaa, 1998[+]