In architectural school I studied the great architects of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which included Louis Sullivan and his protege Frank LLoyd Wright. In 1896 Sullivan coined the phrase, "Form ever follows function." Not long after, Wright shortened it to "Form follows function." It was then expanded to "Form follows function, function follows form," by architect Arthur Reihl, my first boss.
It took a me a few years of listening to Arthur's version before I got the message. He was saying that life doesn't walk a straight line. It wanders around and doubles back on itself, crossing over and under like one of Mary Lou's knitting yarns when she is making a sweater. Life is a folding, unfolding and refolding process. We learn and change and the change re-forms us.
"We shape our buildings, and afterwards, our buildings shape us," said Winston Churchill in a speech before The British House Of Commons, in 1944. And that leads me to the theme of this blog, Love and Architecture.
Our love shapes us, and afterwards, we shape our love. Like form and function, nature and nurture, day and night, loving and being loved are inextricably linked.
So, if you want to be loved, be loving. |
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