Towards a new Architecture
The engineer’s, inspired by the law of economy and governed by mathematical calculations, puts us in accord with univesal law. He achives harmony (Page 1)
THREE REMINDERS TO ARCHITECTS
MASS
Our eyes are constructed to enable us to see forms in
light.
Primary forms are beautiful forms because they can be
clearly appreciated.
Architects to-day no longer achieve these simple forms.
Working by calculation, engineers employ geometrical
forms, satisfying our eyes by their geometry and our understanding
by their mathematics ; their work is on the direct
line of good art.
SURFACE
A mass is enveloped in its surface, a surface which is divided
up according to the directing and generating lines of the
mass ; and this gives the mass its individuality.
Architects to-day are afraid of the geometrical constituents
of surfaces.
The great problems of modern construction must have a
geometrical solution.
Forced to work in accordance with the strict needs of
exactly determined conditions, engineers make use of generating
and accusing lines in relation to forms. They create limpid
and moving plastic facts.
PLAN
The Plan is the generator.
Without a plan, you have lack of order, and wilfulness.
The Plan holds in itself the essence of sensation.
The great problems of to-morrow, dictated by collective
necessities, put the question of ” plan ” in a new form.
Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of
plan, both for the house and for the city.
(Page 2/3)
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