February 11, 2013

I found a wonderful book this weekend written by architect Sim Van der Ryn .  Van der Ryn is an architect that strives to incorporate function and design inspired by and in sync with nature into his structures.  The following is a quote from his book "Design for Life" (p. 157).  "Why is it that the silhouette of a storm-bent leafless tree against an evening sky in winter is perceived as beautiful, but the corresponding silhouette of any multi-purpose university building is not, in spite of the efforts of the architect?  Our feeling for beauty is inspired by the harmonious arrangement of order and disorder as it occurs in natural objects.”  The modernist cube inspired office building just cannot compare with the organic.