One of my ex-sister-in-law—yes, I have more than one—is an architect. Through her, during her college years, I was introduced to Les Corbusier, whose architectural design I have been in love with since. His exposed concrete, monolithic buildings are proto-brutalist, and I am a brutalism, and its simplicity, fanatic.
architecture brutalism designFrom this week’s Areopagus Volume LXII, the temples atop Fanjing, their history, and the Cultural Author wrap up on chapter “IV - Architecture” was very interesting, educative, and inspiring. I quote it below, some emphasis mine.
“Architecture is not only a question of style, of whether we want to build in Gothic or Classical, Bauhaus or Constructivist. And nor is it only a question of choice, of what sort of building we want to create, whether a library or school, office block or hospital. It is, even more than any of these, a matter of faith. That which we believe to be true, and to be most important — be this religious, economic, or otherwise — is far upstream of these other questions. It was because of their beliefs that the builders of the Fanjingshan temples decided to construct them on the Red Cloud Golden Summit. For when we believe that something is both right and necessary we almost always accomplish our goal. The process that has led to urban skyscrapers, to sports stadiums, and to cathedrals, is much the same as that which led to the creation of the Fanjingshan temples — in all cases, at all times, it begins with belief.”
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architecture interesting philosophy