The following is a post,
a response, and my reply to a LinkedIn conversation that I didn’t want to lose.
THE POST: Another
beautiful piece by David Brussat: "Ornament is not merely the jewelry of
architecture but its very essence, the expression of a building’s purpose, its
aspirations and its place on the street but also in the heart and soul of
society."
FIRST RESPONSE: I disagree. Not ornament but rational and sensitive use of
site, structure and function are the essence of architecture. (Author note: “rational”
and “sensitive” remain undefined matters of opinion that seriously weaken shelter design
credibility.)
MY REPLY:
I would like to add that architecture is shelter, and shelter is a division
within the urban and rural phyla of The Built Domain. The survival of the Built
Domain depends on its source of life - The Natural Domain. The decisions that
lead to shelter construction and expansion of The Built Domain are currently
producing a parasitic disease we call sprawl. It is slowly consuming the face
of the planet. The transition from shelter to architecture is a matter of appraisal
and opinion at the present time; but architectural design decisions must become part of
the correlated, symbiotic decisions and solutions we will need to survive in the future.
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